


When The Sky Finally Meets The Ground

by Superbarryallen



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: ;), F/F, Get ready for commander Lexa, but it's been in my notes forever and I kind of love it, literally no one asked for this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:51:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 44,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7258900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superbarryallen/pseuds/Superbarryallen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Lexa, I hope you understand that you can't stay here forever." He says in that stupid chancellor voice that annoys the hell out of Lexa. She's not feeling entirely nice, or tactful, so she scoffs at him and narrows her eyes.</p><p>"No shit." Lexa replies bluntly and the chancellor just shakes his head. "So lock me up? What are you waiting for?" Lexa bangs her fists against the table and smirks when she sees him flinch. "I threatened your son, that's gotta earn me time."</p><p>"You're not being locked up." Jaha says and Lexa feels defeated yet again. "You're being sent to the ground."</p><p>Or, the AU in which Lexa grows up on the Ark and is best friends with Clarke. When the blonde is arrested Lexa has to follow her anywhere - even if it is a little earlier than her best friend - and is sent to the ground two years before the original hundred are. Clarke's more than shocked when she finally meets her best friend again on the ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so literally no one asked for this but it's been in my notes for like ever and I kind of love it. I've set it as a three part series but there may be slightly more I don't know yet. I've had this idea for a while now and I'm finally just posting it. I hope you enjoy and leave me a comment about what you think!

Lexa was pegged as a troublemaker from the moment she was born, or, at least, that's what her mom always said. If that was true why call her Alexandria? Of all the names she could've called her, if she was thought to be such a troublemaker, why give her such a stupid name that made her sound pretentious and stuck up? Lexa was much more fitting, it was short, and it was sweet, and it wasn't a mouthful for her to tell to people especially since she didn't like talking. 

 

Lexa was young when she first met Clarke Griffin and it had been completely by accident. She was five years old when she had been running down the halls of the Ark, trying to escape her mother's hard gaze, when she'd ran straight into the five year old blonde. Lexa had been immediately star struck and, really, that should've been her wake up call that screamed ‘ _ You're definitely not straight. _ ’ but, then again, Lexa always was a little slow when it came to feelings. 

 

Clarke Griffin was a bright eyed and lively five year old who used to love to explore the numerous air ducts, and every crook and cranny of the ark, dragging Lexa along on her adventures, and Lexa was happy to follow, in fact, Lexa was certain she'd follow Clarke Griffin anywhere. 

 

When Lexa finally turned fourteen she was drafted to work in mechanics, since that was the only thing that people seemed to trust her with, while Clarke helped her mother who worked in the medical bay. It wasn't too bad, at least now Lexa earned some ration cards so she no longer had to rely on her mom who spent Lexa's rations on pointless items because, apparently, feeding her daughter was not important. Besides that, she got to see Jake regularly, since he was in charge of making sure the ark was running smoothly, plus she'd befriended a young mechanic named Raven - who was amazingly smart and who Lexa would often get to do her work since she could fix practically anything. 

 

Lexa and Clarke had been best friends for nine years, they shared everything with each other, they were closer than any two people could be - Clarke had even shared her rations with her friend when her mom had left her to starve. Lexa knew her troublemaker image came from her mom's sloppiness and drunkenness because, apparently, a messed up mother meant a messed up daughter but Lexa was the opposite, in fact, she was much like her father, who had passed away before she was born, or at least that's what Jake told her.  _ "You have your mothers look but you're all Gustus Woods in there." _

 

Lexa was focused, she was smart and she kept to herself. Yes, Lexa admits that she is fairly attractive but she's not  _ that  _ attractive. When boys started paying attention to her Lexa felt the need to start paying attention to them too. "I don't know Raven, he's just not my type." Lexa replies, wiping the sweat from her brow, they were busy working on a malfunction and the heat escaping the pipe was almost unbearable. 

 

"Why not? I know he's a couple years older but Bellamy's going places." Raven points out. "I heard he got invited to join the guard." 

 

"Yeah but I just don't feel-" Lexa falters. "I don't know." Raven puts her spanner down and turns to face Lexa fully. 

 

"Lex, you realise that you don't have to like  _ guys  _ right?" Raven asks. She'd always been suspicious, especially with the way Lexa looks at Clarke, but she'd never called her out on it before, in fact, she was pretty sure no one ever had. 

 

Lexa raises an eyebrow, leaning against a pipe, and crosses her arms across her chest. "I'm just saying, you realise that girls can like girls too?" 

 

"I'm fourteen, I don't know who I like." Lexa points out. 

 

"On the Ark, being fourteen practically means you're an adult." Raven retorts. "Come on, you can't tell me that you're attracted to guys, I've seen the way you look at girls." Lexa chews the inside of her lip. Raven did have a point about the adult thing: you got floated of you were eighteen - that was merely four years added on. 

 

"I don't know." Lexa repeats. "We'll see." 

 

"Lexa!" Lexa grins when she hears Jake's cheery voice. "You're break is up, Raven and I can take over from here." He says patting her on the back. "Go say hi to Clarke, she's waiting for you." Jake says and Raven smirks. 

 

"I bet she is." Raven mutters and Lexa frowns in confusion turning on her heel and heading towards where her best friend was waiting. 

 

"What was that about?" Jake questions Raven once Lexa is gone. 

 

"I think Lexa has a thing for Clarke but she's clueless." Raven replies and Jake smiles. 

 

"I think they've been in love since the day they met but,  _ shh _ , don't tell them I said that." He winks at Raven and she laughs before the pair set back to work. 

 

Lexa enters the medical bay to find it relatively empty, there were a couple of people, who Abby was checking out, who were coughing and having trouble breathing but, other than that, no serious injuries had occurred on the ark - and usually they didn't. 

 

Lexa finds the young blonde reading a medical journal in the corner of the room and a smile instinctively forms on her lips. "Well look, if it isn't the birthday girl." Lexa chimes and Clarke drops her book instantly, standing up abruptly to go greet her friend. Clarke throws her arms around Lexa's neck and Lexa laughs - she did have to admit that the racing of her heart was a little unsettling. "I brought you something." Lexa pulls her arms out from behind her to reveal a muffin with a very small candle peeking out the top. Clarke covers her mouth with her hand and pulls Lexa over to one of the medical beds. 

 

"Lexa, how did you get this?" Clarke asks. "You must have spent most of your ration cards on this." 

 

"Totally worth it." Lexa says handing it to Clarke. Clarke takes it hesitantly and Lexa nods for her to blow the candle out. "Make a wish." Lexa encourages and Clarke blows the candle out swiftly. Lexa was a master in all things Griffin, that also meant that she knew when something was bothering her. "What's wrong Clarke? You're finally fourteen now, you should be happy." Lexa says frowning with concern. Clarke lets out a long sigh, breaking off a piece of muffin and handing it to Lexa, who eats it, and Clarke takes another piece for herself. 

 

"It's Murphy." Clarke reveals. "He called me ugly today, he said the only guy I'd get was if he was blind and had no hands." 

 

"He said what?" Lexa asks angrily, standing up, but Clarke pulls her back down. "Do you want me to kick his ass? Because I'll do it." Clarke chuckles softly but keeps her hand gripping Lexa's arm to stop her from actually taking off. 

 

"I don't doubt it but no. That'll just make things worse." Clarke says despondently and Lexa's eyes soften. Clarke looked cute -  _ cute was a word that friends used to describe each other right? _ \- in her medical scrubs and her small doctor jacket, that her mom must have given to her, and here Lexa was, plain white overalls, that were hallway unfastened and loosely tied around her waist, and she was pretty certain she had grease on her forehead. 

 

Lexa could swear she could see tears building up in her best friend’s eyes so she gently turns Clarke's face with her hand and forces her to focus on her. "Well if it's worth anything, I happen to think you're the most beautiful girl on the ark." Lexa says softly and Clarke smiles brightly at her her sadness gone in a flash. 

 

"You're just saying that because you're my best friend and you have to." Clarke accuses but Lexa shakes her head in denial. 

 

"No, I mean it." Lexa admits. Clarke wraps her in a tight hug, resting her head on Lexa's shoulder and sighing contently. 

 

"I love you." Clarke whispers and Lexa's heart does that funny thing again. She knows it's platonic, they'd said that to each other more than once, but Lexa was beginning to think maybe she  _ was  _ different - after all, ‘ _ Girls can like girls too _ .’ Raven's words echo through her head. 

 

"Yeah." Lexa says quietly. "I love you too Clarke." Lexa says. They stay like that for a long moment, just hugging one another, before Clarke playfully pushes Lexa away. 

 

"You're all gross and sweaty." Clarke complains. 

 

"Well you smell like medicine." 

 

"It's better than being sweaty." 

 

"Shut up Griffin." 

 

**//**

 

It took Lexa approximately two months after that experience to realise that maybe she didn't have feelings for boys - she'd made the connection between the fluttering she felt when she was with Clarke and with her lack of interest in boys. Clarke, on the other hand, wouldn't stop talking about boys. More specifically, that one guy who has longish hair, that Lexa couldn't stop thinking made him look like a shaggy dog, but she supposed that people had their types. "Come on Lex, you must like someone." Clarke prods Lexa's side causing the girl to wince and giggle slightly. They were sitting in Clarke's room, on one of their rare day offs, no work, or school, they were tangled in each other, so close that Lexa could feel Clarke's warmth, and she didn't know where she began or where Clarke ended. 

 

"I don't." Lexa replies, with a shrug, the topic making her feel slightly uncomfortable. 

 

"No boys?" Clarke questions nudging her lightly with her elbow. 

 

"Um." Lexa says awkwardly. "I have something I need to tell you that I haven't told anyone else." Lexa says and Clarke sits up right immediately, her eyes lighting up, probably thinking Lexa was about to confess that she had feelings for Bellamy, which she was really getting sick of, the guy was way too alpha male, and their personalities clashed so much that they were at each other's throats like cats and dogs, but, apparently, other people interpreted it as ‘bickering like a married couple’. 

 

Lexa sits up and takes a shaky breath - she'd never confessed such a thing to anyone before. "I-I don't like any boys." Lexa states and Clarke sighs. 

 

"That's okay if you don't have a crush Lexa, I was just curious." Clarke says dismissively and Lexa wipes her palms on her pants in nervousness and frustration. 

 

"No, Clarke, I mean, I don't like boys full stop. I'm not- I don't- I'm gay." Clarke blinks at the brunette for a moment. 

 

"Oh." She says before laughing. "It's okay that you like girls Lexa." Clarke says - she found it a little amusing how nervous Lexa had been to tell her. 

 

"Wait, you're not freaked out?" Lexa questions surprised by Clarke's acceptance. 

 

"No, I like girls too." She shrugs like she hadn't just dropped a bombshell on Lexa's life. Clarke Griffin, who was all boys this and boys that, also liked girls? It's enough to send Lexa spinning confused and dazed by her best friend’s confession. Sure, it eases her own tension but she's more confused than ever before. 

 

"What?" Lexa asks and Clarke laughs softly at Lexa's expression. 

 

"It's called  _ bisexuality _ , look it up Lex." Clarke says sarcastically and Lexa frowns deeply. She knew what being bisexual meant it was just that Clarke never showed signs of being interested in other girls and Lexa should know because, according to Raven, she automatically had a gaydar built into her and she should be able to detect when others are gay, or, in Clarke's case, at least a little bit gay, but no, she'd never even gotten the slightest hint at such a thing. 

 

Clarke rolls her eyes at Lexa's obvious confusion and waits for her to get over the shock. "Why didn't I know about this?" Lexa asks and Clarke chuckles. She leans forward and places a soft kiss to Lexa's cheek. 

 

"I guess you were too busy looking at other girls to notice me looking at girls." Clarke shrugs. 

 

"You never talk about girls." Lexa points out. "In fact, you've never even mentioned finding a girl attractive." Clarke stares at her for a moment. 

 

"Maybe I just haven't found the right girl." Clarke shrugs and Lexa scowls at her not satisfied with that because Clarke had known about her, everyone had known about her apparently, even Raven, who had practically pulled her out the closet, and, sure, Clarke had been momentarily shocked but then she had just laughed like ‘ _ Oh yeah, you're only just figuring this out? _ ’. Lexa was confused, and a little frustrated, and Clarke could see that her best friend just needed a little reassurance. 

 

"I find some girls attractive, if it makes you feel better, I happen to find you very attractive." Clarke says it lightly, like a joke, but Lexa feels that familiar Clarke Griffin heart flutter and the tiny hope she had had for them ever being together had grown tenfold with the knowledge that Clarke wasn't straight. Every time she'd thought about it Lexa had always reminded herself that Clarke is straight but now she was finding out that she wasn't and that meant that maybe someday Clarke wouldn't be with a boy, maybe one day she'd fall for a girl, and Lexa hoped,  _ oh how she hoped _ , that might be her. But hope is a dirty four lettered word and Lexa did not like to get them up, she'd been greeted with nothing but disappointment, but, then again, Clarke had never let her down - not really. 

 

"Really?" Lexa questions in response because what was she supposed to say? ‘ _ Oh, and by the way, I love you.’  _ That'd be insane, that'd be completely reckless, Lexa was not about to wreck her friendship solely for the chance that Clarke might -  _ and that's a very small might  _ \- feel the same way. 

 

"You remember when you told me that you thought I was the most beautiful girl on the Ark?" Clarke asks and Lexa nods thrown back to their conversation in the medical bay only a couple of months prior to this very moment. "I always thought  _ you  _ were the most beautiful girl on the Ark. Why would I want to look at other girls when I have you?" Lexa knows in her soul that Clarke means that platonically, there's no way she could mean it any other way, but she can't help but smile, and her body tingles with happiness, at the mere thought that she means that some other way. 

 

**//**

 

Unity day. Lexa hated that damn day. She still didn't understand why people thought it was appropriate to celebrate the coming together of the Ark. Sure, it meant that they had survived, and they had better chances, and  _ blah, blah, blah _ , but on that day Polaris, the thirteenth station, had been blasted out of the sky. How was that something that should be celebrated? 

 

Lexa wasn't one for dressing up either, so she didn't, and, thankfully for her, this years theme wasn't some obscure thing so she'd settled on her everyday clothes - not that it mattered really since not everyone celebrated the day; some just floated in and then left a few minutes later. 

 

Lexa was hanging around in the Griffin living room of their small station, Jake was sitting in his favourite chair watching Lexa pace every now and again. "Have you told Clarke?" Jake asks halting Lexa. He was giving her his characteristic kind smile and his blue eyes were shining - Lexa found that he reminded her so much of Clarke. 

 

"You heard?" Lexa asks sitting across from Jake. He leans forward and places whatever he had been tinkering with down on his desk. 

 

"When one of my best mechanics gets drafted to work on the guard then I tend to find out things." Jake says but he wasn't being menacing, he was joking, in the way only Jake Griffin could ever really pull off. "You're fifteen now and apparently you aced all your physicals... which doesn't surprise me since Clarke always raves about your six pack." Lexa blushes at that fact and plays nervously with her hands. 

 

"Raven got into zero G." Lexa reveals. "After Finn, you know..." 

 

"Yeah, I'm losing all my great mechanics, first you, and now Raven to Sinclair, but if it's what you really want to do then I can't stop you. I just ask that you do one thing," Lexa looks at Jake waiting for him to ask. "tell Clarke, and soon, I’d hate for her to find out from someone else, and you know what she's like, she'll not like you working for the guard one bit." Jake was serious now, a rare sight to behold, and all Lexa could do was agree. 

 

"Yeah, of course." Lexa promises and Jake smiles softly at her. Abby exits her room wearing a very formal looking dress, that Lexa was not used to seeing her dressed in, no one on the Ark ever dressed up unless it was a celebration but even then, like Lexa and Jake, some people didn't even bother. 

 

"Why am I not surprised to see you two dressed like that?" Abby asks but her wide smile takes all the bite from her words. 

 

"Hey, the mechanics have got to represent." Jake says. "Can't draw the attention away from our two Griffin ladies too much with our good looks and charms." Jake says grinning at Lexa who laughs. They high five and Abby rolls her eyes. 

 

"I get Lexa down playing her looks and charms but where are yours Jake?" Abby teases.

 

"You wound me." Jake says clutching his chest in mock hurt. Abby laughs coming over and kissing her husband on the lips when a sight catches Lexa's eyes. Emerging from her bedroom is Clarke, wearing a beautiful dress, her blonde curls falling perfectly on her shoulders, golden and bright, her blue eyes are striking and stormy, and Lexa could stare at them for an eternity, and her skin is practically glowing - though it’s slightly pale from the lack of sun they get on the Ark but still tanned enough that Lexa was a little suspicious that maybe she had been secretly tanning. 

 

Lexa realises she's staring when Clarke's eyes meet her's and she swallows hard. "You look..." Lexa trails off, her mouth far too dry to continue, she clears her throat, Clarke waiting with an amused grin on her face for Lexa to continue. "...good. You look good." Lexa concurs and Jake laughs. 

 

"Good? My baby girl looks amazing." Jake says standing up from his seat. 

 

"Right, amazing." Lexa agrees walking towards Clarke. Clarke smiles and the brunette offers her arm to Clarke who instantly takes it, looping it around Lexa's and pulling her towards her. "You look beautiful." 

 

"So do you." Clarke comments tugging Lexa even closer. The pair follow Jake and Abby out the door whispering between themselves. 

 

"I'm literally wearing what I wear everyday." Lexa says with a playful grin. Clarke looks up at her. 

 

"So what? Doesn't mean you're any less beautiful." Clarke says nonchalantly and Lexa falters diverting her eyes somewhere else. Did Clarke even know? Did she have any idea what affect she had on Lexa? Lexa got weak in the knees, and she started sweating, and she was pretty sure it was unhealthy the way she felt every time Clarke even glanced her way. But they were just friends, best friends even, nothing more, and they'd never be something more. 

 

"Wells is meeting us there." Clarke informs Lexa and Lexa resists the urge to roll her eyes. She never liked Wells, the guy was far too entitled for her liking. Sure, Clarke had been labeled as ‘Princess’ but Clarke was anything but entitled. She was caring, and kind, she gave everything she had with no expectation of anything in return, and Wells was, well, he was the Chancellor’s son - he could probably do whatever he wanted without consequence. Lexa was very aware of their chess games that she was certain he used as an excuse just so he could sit down across from Clarke and stare at her whenever he so desired. 

 

"Cool." Lexa says and Clarke catches the unenthusiastic undertone to it. 

 

"Hey, be nice, he's not what everyone says he is." 

 

"Whatever Clarke, I'm staying out of all the privileged bullshit." Lexa says. "I've never seen it like that." 

 

"Because you're not privileged and you're open minded." Clarke points out. "You're best friend is privileged." 

 

"I could care less about the fact that you have a bigger station than my mom and I Clarke. I literally do not care, it means nothing." Lexa replies. "You're always going to be that girl who shared her rations with me when I was hungry, who used to lead me into air ducts to play hide and seek, who makes stupid jokes,  _ my best friend _ ." Lexa reassures. They stop just outside the large crowd that was gathered, people were dancing and laughing, and Lexa immediately felt out of place. 

 

"I'm going to find Wells, stay close, and promise me you won't leave." Clarke points at her and Lexa sighs. 

 

"I promise." Clarke smirks before she's swallowed up by the crowd and Lexa sighs again. She couldn't leave now, a promise to Clarke meant a promise, there was no way she would leave and break that. 

 

She decides to keep busy by eating the food that was on offer when someone smacks into the back of her. Lexa grabs the guy by his shirt and pushes him against the wall with a thud - she was lucky that there was no one nearby. It was John Murphy looking extremely apologetic and a little scared. Lexa grins at the dude. "John Murphy." Lexa says loosening her grip on his shirt. "I haven't seen you in a really long time." Murphy straightens up, dashing himself down and straightening out the creases that Lexa had created. Once upon a time Lexa and Murphy had been neighbors, they'd grown up together, but once Lexa started to become invested in her future and, well, Clarke, she'd fallen out of touch with her old childhood friend. 

 

"Lexa Woods, I'm surprised you're not locked up yet." He comments. 

 

"I could say the same about you." Lexa retorts narrowing her eyes. Murphy was a jerk, she knew that, he'd been a jerk multiple times to Clarke, but there was just something about the guy that got under Lexa's skin, that made her sympathise with him, maybe it was the fact that he'd lost his father and mother and, although Lexa's mom was alive, she was practically never there even when she was. She got how that could mess a kid up - especially if they didn't have at least one strong role model in their life. "Look, I've really got to get going, I may or may not have set fire to something." 

 

"Murphy." Lexa warns and he shrugs. 

 

"Sorry commander but I gotta go. Talk to you later." He says ruffling her hair. 

 

"Hey!" Lexa calls after him but he's gone as quick as he had come and a guard was close on his tail. Lexa was going to be really bad at her job if she just let criminals slip through her fingers like that but, this time, it was Murphy and Murphy she could live with letting off the hook. 

 

Lexa spots Clarke talking to Wells and decides she really doesn't want to listen to Wells talk about chess, or the other stupid things that he liked to talk about, Lexa didn't actually talk that much to him so she didn't know if what he was really saying was stupid, but Lexa liked to think so. Deep down she had a feeling that maybe what she was experiencing was jealousy. It was kind of obvious that Wells had a crush on Clarke but Clarke obviously didn't return those feelings which, in a sad way, Lexa could relate to. 

 

Clarke turns her head and meets Lexa's green eyes but Lexa was surprised to find anger reflected in them. An angry Clarke Griffin was something Lexa really didn't like to face - especially when it seemed to be directed at her. Lexa gulps as the blonde storms towards her with a purpose, that Lexa didn't know what it was for, but that she was certain it was for nothing good. "You're joining the guard?" Clarke demands, a deep frown etched into her face, she was quite clearly upset.  _ Of course Wells had told Clarke _ .  _ Why would Lexa expect any less from him? _

 

"I was going to tell you." Lexa says defensively and she honestly was going to say something about it soon, she'd all but told Jake that only a few minutes prior to this very situation, but Wells had beaten her to it. 

 

"When?" Clarke asks angrily. "When you're wearing the uniform and holding a gun?" Clarke asks accusingly and Lexa clenches her jaw. 

 

"No Clarke, I would've told you sooner and you know that." Lexa says feeling exasperated by the blonde's behaviour. "Why are you so angry? I thought you'd be happy for me." Clarke scoffs and Lexa raises her eyebrows. 

 

"The guard got your father killed." She states and Lexa freezes. "I get that you want to follow in your dad's footsteps but you don’t have to. Lexa, this job will get you killed." Clarke finishes. Lexa stands frozen by Clarke's words, her heart breaking slightly at such an accusation, Clarke knew that Lexa's father's death was a sensitive topic and yet she had brought it up. 

 

"What's the matter with you?" Lexa asks putting the drink she was holding down. "Are you trying to hurt me?" 

 

"Lexa I-" Clarke begins. 

 

"No." Lexa steps back holding her hands up. "I would never do this to you." Lexa says turning on her heel and pushing her way out from the crowd. Lexa had always been pegged as a troublemaker, maybe it was the fact that she was descended from the thirteenth station, Becca, Lexa's great great great great great (and so on), grandmother, maybe it was because she had black blood running through her veins, maybe it was because of her mother. Maybe Lexa was sick of being the troublemaker.

 

**//**

Clarke finds Lexa in an air duct a few hours later. The brunette was tucked away, silently staring straight ahead, zoned completely out, that she didn't notice the blonde approaching her until she felt her shoulder touch her own. She didn't have to look to know that it was Clarke because Lexa would follow Clarke Griffin anywhere but Clarke Griffin would follow Lexa Woods anywhere too. "I'm sorry." Clarke whispers staring straight ahead. 

 

"You shouldn't be." Lexa replies leaning her head back until it hits the metal of the duct they were tucked away in. "You never have to apologise to me." 

 

"I do when I've been a major dick." Clarke says nudging her gently and that coaxes the smallest laugh from Lexa. 

 

"I was going to tell you." Lexa says and Clarke nods, after she'd had some time to let her head clear, Clarke realised what an idiot she had been to think that Lexa wouldn't tell her. "I want to do good Clarke, I want to do something for my people, to protect them, and I want to make my father proud. You get it, it's why you're a medical apprentice under your mom." Lexa explains and Clarke sighs. A heavy silence falls between them, the air was thick with something that neither could place but it was rather unsettling. 

 

"I'm proud of you." Clarke murmurs and those four words flip Lexa's stomach upside down and the brunette feels a fluttering in her Chest that she had come to know as the Clarke Griffin effect. 

 

"I don't want to fight with you." Lexa says leaning her head on Clarke's shoulder. The blonde sighs, leaning her own head to rest on Lexa's, and she closes her eyes. "I never want to fight with you Clarke." Lexa repeats and Clarke nods her head slightly. She sticks her hand out and Lexa looks at it curiously until she sees the blonde offering her pinkie to her. 

 

"Swear it?" Clarke asks. "Swear that, no matter what happens, we'll always find our way back to each other, that we'll always be together." Lexa frowns slightly, Clarke's words were too heavy, they sounded as though she was planning on doing something, or that she knew something that Lexa didn't, one thing was for certain: should they ever get separated, for whatever reason, Lexa would never rest until she found Clarke. 

 

"Always." Lexa says without pause, with determination, as she hooks her pinkie around Clarke's and shakes it. Clarke smiles softly and then leans up to peck Lexa on the cheek. 

 

"We should get going." Clarke says. "The party isn't over and you didn't even have the chance to see me bust out my amazing moves." Clarke was joking and things were back to normal again. Except they weren't back to normal, not really, something had changed, Lexa didn't know if it had something to do with the new promise, or the weird energy she had gotten before, but something had shifted - she was certain that something was different. Clarke begins exiting the air duct, gesturing for Lexa to follow, and, of course, she does because Lexa would do anything for Clarke - which she was going to find out soon enough that she'd do literally anything for her best friend. 

 

**//**

 

When Lexa heard about Jake's arrest she didn't believe it. She was on patrol when one of the guards, Miller, told her that Jake Griffin had been arrested and was to be floated for treason. That was ridiculous. At first Lexa thought it was a prank but the man was serious. Lexa couldn't run faster if she tried. 

 

She whizzed through crowds of people, bumping into numerous men and women, being cursed at, and shouted, for her erratic behaviour, but, when she finally reached the airlock, and she heard the crying,  _ oh god the crying _ , Lexa's heart stopped in her chest. It was Clarke's crying, she was apologising, and she could've sworn she heard someone telling her it wasn't her fault, and Lexa gets the sinking feeling in her gut that she was too late and Clarke- Clarke was in  _ so  _ much pain. 

 

Lexa's feet carry her further into the room, she's pale and unsteady, and the guards regard her with mild curiosity but her uniform buys her a free pass into the room without being stopped. "Clarke?" Lexa asks. Abby was holding the blonde in her arms and she turns around to see Lexa staring wide eyed and in shock at the pair. Clarke's head snaps up at the sound of Lexa's voice and she rushes over to the brunette, and collapses into her arms, crying a river on her shoulder.

 

Lexa swallows thickly, her eyes quickly watering as she holds Clarke tightly as she sobs into her chest. "He's gone Lex." Clarke sobs. "It's all my fault." She continues and Lexa shakes her head with tears threatening to spill even more at the broken tone of Clarke's voice. "I shouldn't have said anything." 

 

"Hey, hey, shhh, I'm here, I’m right here." Lexa soothes, running her hand over Clarke's back in soothing circles, but that doesn't help the distraught blonde in her arms. Lexa just holds her tightly, never wanting to let her go, but then Jaha is stepping forward with guards by his side. 

 

"Clarke Griffin," he says and Lexa looks at him with a steely gaze - one that she knows unnerves the man. "you are under arrest for treason." He finishes and Lexa's arms tighten protectively. Her heart rate picks up, no way were they going to take Clarke away from her, no way.  _ No way. _ The guards tear Clarke from her arms as Jaha continues his talking but it's all just background noise to Lexa. 

 

" _ No _ !" She screams lunging forward only to be caught by two more members of the guard. "Clarke!" Lexa thrashes wildly for them to let her go. "Let me go!  _ Let me go _ !" She screams but it was useless. Clarke looks back at her, her blue eyes broken, she looked tired but Lexa would fight for her. Lexa would always fight for her. "She didn't do anything!" Lexa protests and Clarke gives her a sad look. 

 

"Lexa." She says - almost gone. "Always, remember?" She calls and then she's gone and the fight in Lexa extinguishes. The guards release her and Lexa paces back and forth. 

 

"Always." She murmurs to herself over and over again. Abby attempts to comfort the brunette but she brushes her away. Clarke was gone -  _ Clarke was gone _ \- and Lexa didn't know who to blame. 

 

Her eyes catch sight of a sheepish looking Wells in the corner and she feels that fire light inside of her once again. She lunges at the boy, her fist connecting with his face, his eye to be more specific, before she's being pulled away. "You did this!" She seethes and Wells looks at her with impossibly sad eyes. "I'll kill you!" Lexa fights and fights but it's no use, she's a fifteen year old girl, just shy of sixteen, against two men who are at least twice her age. 

 

They pull her into an interrogation room and leave her there. Lexa doesn't sit down, she's far too riled up, she's always been a wild kid but, right now, she feels like she could tear through all of those who dared to hurt Clarke and she wouldn't even bat an eyelash. She pounds on the door for at least half an hour, until her fists are raw and bloody, she kicks at it, screams, yells in frustration, she even smashes the camera in the top corner that she know they're probably watching her through. She doesn't know how long she's in there for but it’s long enough that her body finally falls asleep from exhaustion. 

 

She wakes up only when she feels someone dressing her hands, it's Abby, she looks tired, exhausted, and exactly how Lexa feels. She allows the doctor to wrap her hands, to clean them, and she stares lifelessly at the doctor as she does so. "Why am I here?" Lexa asks her. Her voice is hoarse and scratchy, off all of her screaming from before, and Abby hands her water which Lexa takes gratefully. 

 

"Jaha thinks you're a problem, he has a solution." Abby says, monotone, and Lexa shakes her head in disbelief. It's silent for a long moment, Lexa feeling devastated and trying to contain her feelings, but it's hard - especially around Abby who's like a second mother to her. 

 

"I love her." Lexa says interrupting the silence. Abby looks up to meet Lexa's green eyes, she looks fed up, they're sad, and glistening, and she smiles sadly at the brunette sitting across from her. 

 

"I know." Is her only response, and that's all that needs to be said, they fall into another silence until Abby's ordered to leave again. Lexa waits, there was nothing else she could do, she waits until Jaha himself comes to see her - although he brought a guard and handcuffs just to be safe. 

 

"Lexa, I hope you understand that you can't stay here forever." He says in that stupid chancellor voice that annoys the hell out of Lexa. She's not feeling entirely nice, or tactful, so she scoffs at him and narrows her eyes. 

 

"No shit." Lexa replies bluntly and the chancellor just shakes his head. "So lock me up? What are you waiting for?" Lexa bangs her fists against the table and smirks when she sees him flinch. "I threatened your son, that's gotta earn me time." 

 

"You're not being locked up." Jaha says and Lexa feels defeated yet again. "You're being sent to the ground." Lexa's head snaps up in utter shock, her hands fall on the table with a clang from the metal of the handcuffs. "The one hundred prisoners we have on the Ark are going to be sent to the ground in two years time, we need someone down there to gather Intel, help them survive once they do." He explains. Lexa's pulse quickens and Jaha must see Lexa's excitement because he smiles - though Lexa wants to punch him right in his white mouthed grin. "Yes, Clarke will be one of the prisoners sent to the ground." He says and Lexa hates that he knew that's what she was thinking about. 

 

"Isn't the ground not supposed to be survivable for another hundred years?" Lexa asks. "You want to kill those kids, you want to kill me?" 

 

"That's a possibility, yes." He nods his head as though he wasn't talking about lives here - people's lives. "You're expendable,  _ they're  _ expendable, new circumstances have left us with no choice, we need to know if the ground is survivable." Lex shakes her head in disbelief putting all the pieces together like a jigsaw. 

 

“That's why you killed Jake." Lexa realises. He was the head engineer, if something was wrong with the Ark's life support he would know, and knowing Jake he would've wanted to warn the Ark because he's Jake, he's- he  _ was  _ a good man. Treason. It all made sense. "Clarke got arrested too." She says sitting back.  _ Of course Clarke would've agreed with her father, why wouldn't she have? _

 

Jaha makes a face and Lexa takes a moment to think about all this new information. She didn't have an option really, she had to go to the ground, there was a possibility she might die but living on the Ark without Clarke was just as bad as death. "Fine." Lexa says her eyes holding a certain determination that Jaha couldn't place. "And Clarke will be coming to the ground in two years?" Lexa asks. 

 

"Two years." Jaha confirms. Of course Lexa was going to do it, not because she was obliged to, or because she was being threatened, or anything, but because ever since Lexa was five years old there's something she's always known: she'd follow Clarke Griffin anywhere.

 

The ground was about to meet Lexa Woods and boy was it unprepared for the shitstorm that was bound to follow. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She stuffs the picture away from her eyes and looks up at her surroundings, now, suddenly, the earth reminds Clarke of Lexa. The green of the trees and grass reminds Clarke of Lexa's eyes, the heat of the sun's rays reminds Clarke of her warmth, the softness of the grass beneath her feet reminds her of how soft Lexa's skin was, the gentle breeze reminds Clarke of when Lexa used to whisper to her in earth skills class, the earth is Lexa and she never even made it to the ground.
> 
> Or, this chapter is more of a filler, and canon divergence, that leads up to the eventual reunion of Clexa bffs (that secretly love each other).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long since I updated this but here it is and it's extra long so enjoy that. I've practically written the whole of chapter three already, so the wait for that won't be that long, but please note that this fic is no longer only three chapters!!! I've upped it to 8 because I just kept getting ideas and I love it so I had to extend the amount of chapters. Anywho, so this is kind of canon divergence and, really, this chapter is to just set up chapter 3 which is loaded with Clexa and information, so this chapter is kind of a filler more than anything, but I'm excited for chapter three, so, without further ado, enjoy!

Really, there's no nice way to wake up. Nobody likes opening their eyes on a morning, no one likes realising that you have to pull yourself out of bed and get on with your life until you can finally collapse back into your bed. Clarke had been in a routine of waking up, trying to keep herself from dying of boredom, eating when the guards brought her food and then, eventually, sleeping again. Time seemed non-existent, especially in space, but she passed her time by drawing...  _ the ground, _ to be specific. 

 

Clarke dreamed of eventually traveling to earth, she'd only read about earth and it didn't seem likely she'd ever see the ground, since it wouldn't be survivable for another hundred or so years, at least, that's what they said, but she never thought she’s actually get to go to the ground, she was born to die in space. 

 

Nobody likes waking up. 

 

Waking up, plummeting to earth in a rickety dropship, is probably the worst thing to wake up to. She jolts awake, gripping the double seatbelt like a life support, the last thing she remembered was talking to her mom, she had been worried that she was being floated, that Jaha had managed to pass some new law that meant that you no longer had to be eighteen to be floated, but her mother had explained that they were being sent to the ground sent to the ground,  _ all  _ one hundred prisoners. 

 

Clarke turns her head to the right to find someone who she least expected to find there. Wells smiles back at her, a kind smile, the good guy smile, and it was annoying because that's why Clarke had chosen him as a friend, because Wells was inexplicably always a good guy, but maybe that wasn't true. 

 

A flash of anger burns in Clarke's veins at the sight of him and her blue eyes burn with rage as he slowly realises that Clarke hasn't forgiven him. Lexa always did dislike Wells and maybe she had been right too, after all, he did betray Clarke beyond forgiveness. "You can't be mad at me forever Clarke." Wells points out as the blonde turns away from him. "You have to forgive me at some point." He says. 

 

"You killed my father." Clarke bites back. "I don't have to forgive you...  _ ever _ ." She turns away from him, her eyes roaming the dropship with purpose, but, if she had looked just that little bit longer, she might have noticed the look that suggested that Wells may not have been as responsible for her father's death as she thought he was. 

 

She recognised a young boy dressed in a guard's uniform, probably slightly older than the rest of them, it's Bellamy, Lexa's old something, they never really were  _ anything  _ but people had always assumed they were, her eyes catch on a girl wearing a red jacket, sitting separated from the group, it's Raven, her dad's best mechanic, she wants to ask her what she's doing here when the dropship jolts and the sounds of nervous passengers drowns out Clarke's voice. 

 

She continues looking for the familiar brown curls, she's searching for Lexa, she doesn't know what happened to her best friend, after she had been dragged away and locked up, and being in solitary confinement meant that Clarke wasn't allowed to see anyone, you know, in case she told someone about how the Ark was dying. After seeing Lexa so angry and worked up Clarke had assumed that the brunette would've gotten herself into trouble but she was nowhere to be seen... maybe she was on the other level. 

 

Clarke chews the inside of her cheek before reluctantly turning to Wells for her answer. "Where's Lexa?" Clarke asks. Wells turns to look at her and, the second Clarke sees his expression, she knows that something happened. "What happened?" Clarke asks feeling her heartbeat accelerate, she's been locked up in a cell for two years without contact, the first person who Clarke wanted to see was her best friend, she wanted to hug her, she wanted to be with her, but, judging by the look that Wells was giving Clarke, that may not be possible. 

 

"No one knows." He says hesitantly. "All we were told is that there was a struggle and Lexa disappeared, no one's heard from her for two years, people assumed that she was killed accidentally by a member of the guard but, no one knows for sure." He explains calmly. Clarke closes her eyes, the news hitting her hard. Lexa had been from the lower class, it was likely she had been executed, but it was just like Jaha to fabricate some lie so that Lexa had come off as a hero, a tragic death, so that the lower classes didn't start a riot, or a rebellion, they always stuck together like that, it was something that Clarke's always admired, she's never known loyalty like Lexa and she certainly didn't experience that from Wells - though, at one point, she had. 

 

She opens her eyes again after willing herself not to cry - Lexa, she was too young, she should have never have died. “May we meet again.” Clarke whispers bowing her head slightly in sadness. 

 

"I'm sorry Clarke, I know how much she meant to you." Wells says softly. Clarke shakes her head, she could almost hear Lexa yelling at her to stop being sad about her death, Clarke scoffs, almost  _ too  _ clearly she can hear her words.  _ ‘Stop being sad about me Griffin, I'm okay, just make sure you look out for yourself.’ _

 

Lexa used to tell Clarke over and over again that Clarke's caring nature, while it was admirable, it wasn't desirable because Clarke puts people before herself, she's driven to fix people, it's what she does, but, on the ground, she has a feeling that might not be such a good thing. 

 

Another jolt causes panicked murmurs to break out among the other prisoners, the ride is beyond bumpy and Clarke just really wishes that Lexa was here to hold her hand. Lexa is-  _ was  _ the most caring person towards her, more than anyone else ever had been - except, maybe her own father. 

 

With a sudden jolt, and the feeling of being pulled down with a force unlike anything Clarke has really felt, she realises that they just entered the Earth's atmosphere. Her hands tighten, instinctively, around the seatbelt strapped to her and she closes her eyes tight in preparation for impact. The ship jolts again and Clarke feels the ship as it takes the brunt of the impact of landing, the dropship creaks as the metal scrapes through the earth and Clarke closes her eyes, feeling her heart beat right out of her chest, before she's thrown back in her seat suddenly as the ship stops. 

 

There's a silence that falls over the surrounding teens that's punctuated only by the groaning of metal and then people are scrambling out of their harnesses - Clarke included. Bellamy disappears for a moment, Clarke stands, Finn and Raven gravitate towards each other and everyone else seemed shaken but they all looked to be in pretty good shape. Clarke avoids Wells' gaze, like it might burn her to look at him, and he gives her a sad look of disappointment, when Bellamy returns with a girl by his side as they talk happily between themselves. Clarke twists at her wristband and notices that Bellamy doesn't have one himself. 

 

She pushes past nearby prisoners and walks up to Bellamy who had come to a stop in front of the door to the dropship. "Where's your wristband?" Clarke asks, interrupting Bellamy's conversation with the girl which earns her a cold stare from her. 

 

"Excuse me, but I haven't seen my brother in three years." The girl says sharply. Clarke's brow furrows at the term ‘brother’ because no one had a sibling. On the Ark, you were restricted to one child per parents, no one had a sibling, and then Clarke remembers hearing about a girl who had been arrested just for having been born, she'd been hidden under the floorboards for years, undiscovered by the guard, until she had been caught attending one of the Unity Day celebrations - Clarke just didn't realise that it had been  _ Bellamy's  _ sister. 

 

The sound of Octavia lurching forward for someone causes Clarke to snap back to reality and she realises, with a start, that she's surrounded by her fellow prisoners who all seem to be gawking at Octavia like she's a three headed human or something. "O, it's not worth it." Bellamy says and Octavia's fight seems to leave her. Clarke can tell that Octavia has a heat to her, she's a fighter, and, for some reason, Clarke has this nagging feeling that that might be a good quality to have down on earth. 

 

Bellamy turns to pull on the lever that opens the door to the dropship and Clarke eyes widen. " _ Wait _ !" She yells stepping forward. Bellamy jumps at the loud interruption and retracts his hand immediately, he turns and faces Clarke with a cold glare but Clarke doesn't really give a crap about him at the moment. "The air could be poison, you could kill us all." Clarke points out. Bellamy glances at the lever for a moment and Clarke can almost see the cogs turning in his head. 

 

Bellamy was handsome by all accounts, his jaw was square and sharp, his skin smooth and his eyes a chocolate brown, except, Clarke wasn't really loving the whole gelled back hair look. Someone steps up beside Clarke and she glances to the side to see Finn, the boy she used to have a crush on years ago, standing next to her. "Princess is right," Clarke refrains from grimacing at the nickname. "we don't know what it's like out there." 

 

"If we stay in here, then we die anyway." Bellamy replies. Clarke already gets the sense that Bellamy has a certain quality that means that people will take orders from him but not her, no way, if Bellamy was going to make decisions that could hurt people, or endanger their lives, then Clarke would not allow it, but, admittedly, he did have a point: if they stayed inside, they died from starvation, if they opened the door, they died from radiation,  _ maybe _ , either way, they'd end up dying. 

 

Bellamy pulls on the lever and a loud hissing cuts through the air as the pressure regulates. Raven comes up beside Clarke now as the door slowly opens. "Hey blondie, long time no see." Raven greets with a grin. Clarke nods her head in greeting, Raven was the only person she was even remotely close to down here, but  _ Lexa  _ had always been the one who had befriended Raven. "I'm sorry about what happened to your dad," Raven mutters. "and Lexa." Clarke swallows hard, balling her fists at her sides as Octavia took the first steps on earth in nearly a hundred years. 

 

"Thanks." Clarke replies, looking up at the mechanic, Raven's eyes are nothing if not understanding, sympathetic, and Clarke decides right then and there that she likes Raven and, if she was going to trust anyone, it would be her. 

 

_ "We're back bitches!"  _

 

Clarke looks towards the door to see Octavia standing on the ground, hands in the air, yelling at the top of her lungs. The surrounding prisoners hoot and holler, running out of the door, and Clarke follows, wanting to see the earth for herself. 

 

She hops off of the metal door of the dropship and takes a deep breath of the air,  _ fresh air _ , not the synthetic musty air of the Ark. Clarke's lungs feel like they haven't breathed until this very moment, she tilts her head up, feeling the sun hit her skin and  _ the smell, _ it smelt like dirt, flowers and grass all blended together in one. The grass beneath her feet was soft and Clarke sighs feeling like she might have just come home. 

 

Clarke sticks her hands into the pockets of her jacket, a smile adorning her face, when her fingers catch at a piece of paper tucked away inside of her pocket. She pulls it free, staring at a blank paper, until she flips it around. Her breath catches in her throat and her heart breaks in her chest. 

 

It's a picture of Lexa and herself, Lexa is smiling, a smile that warms Clarke's hollow chest, her green eyes are full of life and happiness, the brunette has her arm slung over Clarke who's holding up a piece of art that she had entered into a competition and that had won. Clarke smiles at the image, remembering the warmth of Lexa's arm around her shoulders, the sound of her laugh, her smile, and, suddenly, Clarke's overwhelmed with sadness. 

 

She stuffs the picture away from her eyes and looks up at her surroundings, now, suddenly, the earth reminds Clarke of Lexa. The green of the trees and grass reminds Clarke of Lexa's eyes, the heat of the sun's rays reminds Clarke of her warmth, the softness of the grass beneath her feet reminds her of how soft Lexa's skin was, the gentle breeze reminds Clarke of when Lexa used to whisper to her in earth skills class, the earth  _ is  _ Lexa and she never even made it to the ground. 

 

She jolts from her thoughts when there's a commotion a few feet away. She turns around to see that Wells and Murphy appeared to be fighting about something and she internally groans. They've been on the ground for five minutes, if that, and they're already fighting. Clarke jogs over and puts herself between the two of them, resting her palm face down on their chests. "What the hell is going on?" Clarke asks giving them both a steely glare with her blue eyes - she wasn't happy with Wells at the moment and she's never really liked Murphy but she'd still stopped them from potentially killing each other. 

 

"Pretty boy here started commanding the place like he's the chancellor of the ground." Murphy sneers and Clarke resists the urge to roll her eyes - she never understood Lexa's soft spot for the delinquent. 

 

"No I never!" Wells grits out. "I just said that we needed to set up camp, find food and water, or we won't survive at all." He points out. Clarke sighs, glancing up at the sky momentarily, before facing back to her friends. 

 

"First of all," Clarke states. "water isn't that big of an issue, there's a stream nearby that I spotted and the Ark put supplies in the dropship, if we need to, we can make a few rain catchers." Clarke says calmly. "Food is an issue, and we'll need to send some people out to hunt, and shelter, there's a hundred of us, I'm sure we can have people gather food and build shelter at the same time." 

 

"And you have me." Raven steps forward with a wide cocky grin. "The Ark sent me with you guys so I can help with my amazing mechanical skills." Murphy scoffs at her and Raven frowns at the boy. 

 

" _ You _ ?  _ Really _ ?" He asks and Clarke suppresses her grin of amusement. Raven was the youngest Zero-G mechanic in over fifty years -  _ fifty two but who's counting? _ \- Jake used to rave (no pun intended) about her skills as a mechanic and, according to Lexa, she's probably one of the smartest people who has ever lived on the Ark so, yeah, if there was anyone on the ground who could help build structures, and create some sort of way to communicate with the Ark, it was Raven Reyes, so Murphy was terribly wrong. 

 

Raven fixes him with a glare and makes a gesture for him to come closer, Murphy does so and Raven hits him across the back of the head, not hard, but not gentle either. "Ow!" He protests, curling his lips slightly, Clarke gets the impression that he's going for a vicious wolf kind of look but, really, he just comes off as more of a grumpy puppy - maybe Clarke could see why Lexa had had a soft spot for the boy. "I'm Raven Reyes stupid, there's nothing I can't fix, or build, or whatever." Raven says and Murphy blushes a little, clearly recognising the name. 

 

"I can take a small scouting party, we can collect some supplies, but I think the Ark sent down some food anyway?" Clarke suggests looking around at the gathered people. Murphy shifts on his feet and Raven glares at the side of the boy's head. 

 

"You princess?" Bellamy asks and Clarke turns to face him. "Have you even worked a day in your life?" He asks and Clarke has to resist the urge to pull a Raven and slap him on the back of the head. She might have been privileged on the Ark but she wasn't on the ground, they were all equal, and, plus, her parents had had to work to get the respected jobs that they deserved. 

 

"I aced my earth skills class so, unless you can tell me what will  _ kill  _ you and what will  _ heal  _ you, I suggest you shut that trap of yours." Clarke retorts snapping at the older boy who clenches his jaw. 

 

"Well I have a gun." He points out and Clarke raises her eyebrows, a technique that she has perfected for intimidating people with a mere eyebrow lift. 

 

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Clarke asks. There's a tense moment of the pair staring at one another when the sister, Octavia Blake, steps up. 

 

"I'll go with you." Octavia says, snapping Bellamy from his staring match with Clarke, he gives her a hard glare and the girl just shrugs at him. "Come on Bell, it's not that bad, what's the worst that could happen?" Octavia asks. "We need supplies, Clarke knows her stuff and the ground has been uninhabited for almost a century. I think we'll be fine." Octavia says sarcastically. Clarke watches as the tension drains from Bellamy a little, she could appreciate that Bellamy just wanted to protect his sister, in fact, she almost admired it. 

 

"I'm in too." A boy wearing goggles says, stepping forward, practically drooling over Octavia. 

 

"If he's going then I have to too." A small Asian boy steps forward beside the goggles boy and Clarke smiles at them. "Someone's got to stop Jasper from getting himself killed and we both used to work in the garden, we know our plants too." Monty says happily and Clarke nods. 

 

"I'll tag along too." Finn says, stepping forward, seemingly out of nowhere. "Can't let princess here get lost." He says with a grin. "I'm a tracker, if we happen to stumble upon something like food, then I'm your man." He winks a little and Clarke nods her head, satisfied with her group of people, all together that made five of them, small yet large, enough for them to complete their small task. 

 

She turns and sees Wells looking at her with wide eyes and Clarke quickly averts her own, not able to look at her old friend without feeling a stab of betrayal and hurt. She pushes past him without a word and Wells drops his head, getting the impression that Clarke didn't want him there - which she didn't. Bellamy watches after the small party and then turns to Murphy. "I guess that means we have to set up the shelter." He says with a sigh before commanding the surrounding delinquents so that they could quickly and efficiently build the shelter that they needed.

 

**//**

 

"Hey princess, look at this." Finn calls over to Clarke. The blonde walks towards the so called spacewalker to see him clearing a sign of moss and dirt, Octavia was joking with Monty and Jasper, loud and boisterous in their new home on the ground. Clarke looks at the sign curiously, her eyes widening when she reads what it says. 

 

"Mount Weather?" Clarke looks at Finn who grins at her excitedly. 

 

"Isn't that some old fallout shelter?" Finn asks. Clarke nods her head, running her hand over the words with a look of wonderment on her face, it’s faded and weathered, thanks to years of rain and other weather conditions, but Clarke can clearly read the words and, if there's anywhere that has supplies that they can use, it would be Mount Weather. 

 

"Um, guys?" Octavia calls from behind them. Clarke turns around to see Octavia holding a skull of some kind in one hand, it looks like it might be human but the cranium is too large and it's much more broader than that of a normal human skull, it reminds Clarke of the old primates that she had seen in her history books, the ones showing the evolution of humankind. 

 

Clarke slips her hand into her pocket and grasps at the picture she finds nestled there, she's reminded of the promise that they both made tucked away in an air duct, the promise that, no matter what happens, they'd always find their way back to each other, that they'd always be together, but now that's not possible. 

 

"What is this?" Octavia's voice interrupts Clarke's thoughts and she pulls her hand from her pocket, letting her sad thoughts of her best friend leave her for the time being. 

 

"Whatever it is, it's not human." Clarke mutters. "Let's keep moving." Clarke storms off into the forest and the group of delinquents follow after her, Octavia drops the skull and hurries to catch up, not wanting to get lost in the dense foliage. Clarke slows her pace, allowing Finn to take the lead, accompanied by Jasper and Monty, while she falls into step beside Octavia. 

 

"You know," Octavia says, nudging Clarke playfully. "my brother wasn't always like that." 

 

"Like what?" Clarke asks, sounding a little board, she doesn't mean to, but she can't find herself to be bothered to think about Bellamy Blake at the moment - especially when they're trying to find the infamous Mount Weather. 

 

"An ass." Octavia answers and Clarke finds herself laughing, it's the first time she's laughed on the earth, or, at least, laughed at someone else on the earth. "I mean, yeah, he's always been protective of me, but he's always been a good guy, he's a natural leader I suppose." Octavia shrugs and Clarke regards her curiously. Octavia didn't seem like much of a follower herself, though how would Clarke know? She barely knows any of the prisoners thanks to her time in solitary. "You seem to be a natural leader yourself blondie." Octavia says with a smile and Clarke finds herself smiling back at her. So maybe Clarke liked Octavia, it wasn't the end of the world, no, that was 97 years ago when someone decided to destroy the world with a bunch of radioactive missiles. 

 

"So what did you all get arrested for?" Jasper calls from the front curiously. Octavia rolls her eyes and nudges Clarke playfully with her elbow, drawing another laugh from the blonde, and Octavia smiles, obviously pleased that she was getting through Clarke's uptight exterior. 

 

"Well we all know Finn was the idiot who wasted three months of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk." Clarke says and the group laugh. Finn glances over his shoulder with a bright white grin. 

 

"It was totally worth it Princess." He says and Clarke resists the urge to roll her eyes again because Finn didn't know how precious the oxygen supply on the ark really was. "When's the last time you let down your hair,  _ Clarke _ ?" Finn asks and Clarke shakes her head. 

 

"It's down right now isn't it?" Clarke asks raising her eyebrows. Octavia lets out a snort of laughter, high fiving Clarke, while Jasper and Monty let out a round of dramatic  _ ‘Ohhhs’,  _ Finn just chuckles in amusement and turns to face forward. 

 

"What about you Octavia?" Jasper asks, glancing at the girl. 

 

"I was born." Octavia replies dryly, flatly, and Clarke gives her a sympathetic look. It just wasn't right that Octavia had been imprisoned, it wasn't her fault that she had been born, she hadn't had any part to play in that, and yet she'd been imprisoned for it. 

 

There's an awkward silence before Clarke decides to fill it. "What about you Jasper? Monty?" Clarke asks. Octavia gives her a grateful smile and Clarke returns it with a small one of her own. 

 

"Jasper and I got caught stealing herbs from the garden." Monty answers, grinning at his best friend who winks back at him. 

 

"Herbs?" Octavia asks. 

 

"Let's just say, basil isn't the only herb in the garden if you know what I mean." Monty replies and Jasper laughs. 

 

"I believe people used to call people like us potheads." Jasper chips on and the group of kids laugh. 

 

"What about you princess?" Finn asks. "What big bad thing did you do to get locked up in solitary confinement?" He asks his voice playful but Clarke's mouth has a sour taste to it, she looks down at the ground and feels a stabbing in her chest where her heart resides. 

 

"I knew something that I shouldn't have." Clarke answers. "So they locked me up for treason, floated my dad and probably killed my best friend." Clarke's voice is dark, and she can feel sympathetic eyes on her from everywhere, but she makes no move to make any further comment, souring not only her own mood but everyone else's. 

 

"I'm sorry." Finn says and Clarke looks up at him. 

 

"Yeah," She says monotone. "me too." 

 

**//**

 

They continue the rest of their journey in silence until they reach a stream. Jasper ventures across it first, which Clarke is certain he only does to impress Octavia, when the boy makes it safely to the other side the teenagers hoot and holler in celebration as Jasper holds up a sign that shows that they were getting closer to Mount Weather. Clarke felt light headed and giddy, she felt free and unchanged, she was still weighed down but surrounded by these people, who just seemed so happy and alive, gave Clarke a sense of joy she hadn't experienced in a long time. 

 

That is, until the spear flies through the air and embeds itself into Jasper's chest. 

 

The teens fall silent immediately, eyes widening almost comically in their horror as they see the boy fly backwards from the impact and disappear in the bushes around him. " _ Jasper _ !" Clarke almost screams but she gets no response and, really, what do you do when someone's been hit with a spear from somewhere where you can't see them? What do you do when you're under attack but you have no idea who it is, what it is, or where they are?  _ What do you do? _

 

You fucking run, and that's exactly what they did.

 

**//**

 

Lexa would've loved the ground,  _ she would have loved it _ , the air is fresh, Clarke can almost feel it expanding in her lungs and pushing back out again, the earth is so clear, it’s so green, she would've loved it and she would've known what to do at this moment. 

 

Clarke leaps over roots and weeds followed closely by her other friends. If Clarke and Bellamy were natural born leaders then Lexa was at least ten times the leader that they were and she would've known what to do in this situation, she would've know whether to run or stay, whether to fight or hide, _ she would've known _ , but she's not here and all Clarke is doing is running and she can't stop, as clear as the earth might be, Clarke's blinded by her fear and her desperation. So she runs, and she runs, until her feet catch on something and then she tumbles. 

 

Her foot catches on something and she falls to the ground in a heap, scratching her chin off the rough terrain and hard fall and knocking the air right out of her lungs. Clarke looks up a little dizzily to see the skull that Octavia had been holding previously on the ground: the source of her fall. She stares at it for a moment before someone is tugging on her arm and hoisting her up from the ground. "Come on princess." It's Finn who has his hand wrapped around Clarke's arm and Clarke just lets him tug her up from the ground when a scream rips through the mostly silent forest and the group of delinquents all stop in their tracks and turn to face the noise. 

 

"Jasper." Clarke almost gasps. "He's still alive!" Clarke pushes off of Finn and sprints back towards where they had left Jasper. Lexa wouldn't have left Jasper behind, she would've made some big point about no man gets left behind, and Clarke was determined to make Lexa proud of her despite the fact that her best friend was no longer with her. 

 

" _ Clarke _ !" Finn yells as the blonde takes off. She knows the others will follow, she doesn't know why but, she just knows people listen to her, it was a skill that she should thank her father for, he'd always been able to talk to people, to make them follow him, and, it seemed, Clarke had inherited that same trait. 

 

Clarke skids to a stop at the edge of the stream, glancing behind her nervously, before darting across it, not bothering to care about the fact that she can't swim, or the cold and bite of the water, luckily, it's not that deep and Clarke reaches the other side relatively easily to find that Jasper was no longer there. 

 

Finn comes up behind, her flanked by Octavia and Monty who look down at the empty space in shock and horror. All the teenagers were breathing heavily, breathless from their panic and running, as they stared at the empty space. "Where the hell is he?" Octavia asks her voice layered with panic as her head darts around the forest. 

 

"Who the hell shot him?" Monty asks and Clarke looks over her shoulder, remembering the skull that had been on the ground, she swallows hard, shoving down the bile that was rising in her throat and she gives them all a hard look. 

 

"Or  _ what  _ shot him." Clarke states. The statement hangs in the air, the teenagers not sure what to do, Clarke looks back at the ground to see drag marks where they must have dragged Jasper away and then another scream rips through the air startling the teens and restarting their panic. 

 

Clarke begins to walk forward but a firm grip on her shoulder pulls her back. The blonde whirls on the person who had stopped her to see Finn looking at her with his wide chocolate eyes that gave Clarke pause. "Wait princess." He says and, Clarke has to give him credit, he seems remarkably calm and in control than what Clarke feels and what Octavia and Monty look. "We should head back to camp and get back up, we have no weapons and, if we go after him defenseless, we could all die." Finn states. Clarke pauses, biting down on her lip, her hand almost habitually flies to her pocket where she runs her thumb over the picture of Lexa there. 

 

She nods her head stiffly, relinquishing to Finn's words because he was right, they should get back to camp and get help because, whatever had dragged Jasper away certainly wasn't pleased for them to be there, and going in without some sort of defense was reckless and stupid and Clarke wasn't either of those things - not usually anyway. The teens begin their journey back towards camp, hopeful that Jasper would be able to hold on until they were able to save him from whatever had took him in the first place.

 

**//**

 

Bellamy was a natural born leader, maybe it was his gun that was secured to his waist that made people listen to him but, the camp was already sporting a few man made tents for people to sleep in, wood had been gathered for a fire pit in the centre of the camp and all of the delinquents were working together to complete the task. Bellamy had somehow gotten Murphy to listen to him and, with Murphy under his sleeve, he had nothing to worry about, the other teenagers fell into line easily. 

 

The removal of the wristbands was just a plus in Bellamy's opinion, they didn't need the Ark following them down here, he knew what those bracelets did and, since no one on the Ark gave a flying rat’s ass about him or his sister, then he was more than content to leave them up in space to die -  _ especially  _ chancellor Jaha. 

 

The camp begins to stir as shouts from the tree line sound and Bellamy watches as Clarke explodes from the tree line covered in a sheen of sweat and his heart rate picks up in his chest until he sees Octavia break through last. He heaves a sigh of relief, running a hand through his now messy curls, and then jogs to go meet them where a crowd was already gathering. 

 

There was someone missing. 

 

He pushes his way through the assembled crowd and comes face to face with Clarke, he didn't particularly like Clarke, mostly because she had been one of the privileged on the Ark, but he did appreciate her instincts, she was smart, and stubborn, and confident, and pretty much Bellamy's biggest threat for being in charge, but a part of him kind of liked her too. He may not have known Clarke on the Ark directly but he had known Lexa and the brunette had never shut up about the blonde, always talking about her as though she was the greatest thing in the world, well, now they were actually in the world, Bellamy was debating if that was true or not. 

 

Once the group of sweaty teenagers regain their breaths, Clarke straightens up and looks at Bellamy before her eyes snap to the pile of already detached wristbands. "What are you doing?" Clarke asks shoving Bellamy slightly. "You're taking off your wristbands? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?" She seethes and Bellamy scoffs at her. 

 

"We don't need the Ark." Bellamy says receiving a few cheers in agreement. 

 

"Those wristbands communicate our vitals to the Ark, if you take them off, they think you're dead, if they think we're dying, they won't follow us down here and we need their help." Clarke retorts angrily, stepping closer to Bellamy who just watches her with a cocky grin. 

 

"We don't need their help." Bellamy shrugs and Clarke narrows her eyes at him. 

 

"We need weapons, there are people on the ground." Clarke states. The surrounding prisoners let out gasps, a low murmur of panic beginning at the revelation, Bellamy falters for a second, his face dropping into one of worry and concern before he smoothes it over with a look of indifference. 

 

"What are you talking about princess?" He asks. Finn steps forward beside the blonde and gives Bellamy a look. 

 

"She's right, someone shot Jasper with a spear, it went right through his shoulder and then they took him." Finn says and the low murmuring gets louder as panic spreads like wildfire through the delinquents. Bellamy almost wants to hit Finn on the head for saying that, because panic and chaos is not what they need right now, they need to stay calm. 

 

"And the Ark is dying." Clarke announces to the crowd, turning on the spot to face them. "My dad found out that the oxygen supply wouldn't last for another hundred years so they killed him when he tried to tell people and they locked me up for trying to help him." The crowd stop their murmuring to listen to the blonde - even Bellamy kept his mouth shut and listened to the girl standing in front of him. "If you take off your wristbands, and make the Ark think we're dying, then it won't just be the privileged that suffer. They'll have to downsize the population, that means women, children, fathers, mothers, will die to try and reserve the oxygen supply when there is perfectly breathable air down here." Clarke says and then she turns to Bellamy with an intense glare. 

 

"Do you really want to be responsible for the death of hundreds of people?" She asks him pointedly. Bellamy looks down at the ground for a moment before looking back up. "Do you still have your gun?" She asks. Bellamy lifts his shirt up to reveal the gun attached to his hip and Clarke nods her head. "Good, then you're coming with me." Clarke states, leaving no room for argument, but Bellamy tries anyway. 

 

"And why would I do that?" He asks. Clarke narrows her eyes again and steps closer to Bellamy so they're almost chest to chest, she raises one eyebrow slightly and, although she's shorter than the boy, she stares him down. 

 

"Because you're on the ground, and down here, we’re a team, which means we don't leave anyone behind." She says. Bellamy was impressed to say the least, the blonde had courage that much was for certain. He nods his head slowly, deciding that fighting with Clarke on this matter wouldn't do them any good, plus, she was right, they had to look out for each other and the people around them seemed to listen to Clarke. 

 

"Okay." Bellamy agrees and Clarke gives him a look of surprise. "You're right, we need to look out for each other down here, it's not the Ark, people shouldn't be left to die." Clarke steps back from the boy and he gives Clarke a goofy smile, his best relaxed smile that he had, and Clarke dips her head in response. 

 

"Alright, listen up!" Bellamy commands turning to face the crowd. The prisoners all turn to face him, much like they had Clarke a second ago, and listen intently to what Bellamy had to say. "While we're out rescuing Jasper I expect a wall to be built around the perimeter of camp, if anyone has any issues with that, report them to Raven, she's the best mechanic we have, she'll know what to do, is that clear?" Bellamy asks and the crowd let out a low response of agreement. "Good, if anything happens while we're gone, retreat back to the dropship and close the door," the surrounding teenagers let out nervous sounds and Bellamy goes to quickly calm them. "but don't panic." He says calmly. "Each and every one of you are capable of doing this, okay? There's no need to panic, we don't know why Jasper was attacked, it could’ve just been a warning, so there is no need for anyone to panic yet." Bellamy says. He looks around at the surrounding delinquents, most looked worried and panicked but some, like Nathan Miller and that girl Harper, looked determined and somewhat calm - people who Bellamy knew he could trust to hold down the fort while Clarke and himself weren't present. 

 

"Monty, you should go talk to Raven, she's inside trying to figure out a way to contact the Ark, something about a transmitter being broken or wiring, I don't understand her nerd talk." Bellamy instructs. 

 

"On it." Monty says giving Clarke a meaningful look and the blonde smiles reassuringly at him, nodding her head for him to go and giving him reassurance that she would find Jasper and bring him home. 

 

"Murphy, you're with us." Bellamy orders and the boy comes up behind Bellamy, eyeing Clarke with a little disdain -  _ or was that curiosity?  _

 

"I'm coming too." Finn says. "I'm a tracker, so you guys will need me if you want to find Jasper." He says and Clarke nods her head at him. Then Wells steps forward and Clarke frowns at the boy. 

 

"Hey, we've already got the princess, we don't need the prince too." Murphy sneers and Clarke would be offended if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want Wells coming with them either. Wells looks at Clarke who quickly averts her eyes and begins walking in the opposite direction. "Trouble in paradise?" Murphy asks and Wells shoves him. " _ Hey _ !" Murphy lunges towards Wells only to be held back by someone grabbing the back of his collar. 

 

"Knock it off Murphy." Bellamy grumbles shoving the boy forward. Murphy stumbles a little, but just lets out a string of curses, before following after Clarke and Finn. Bellamy turns to Wells and lets out a sigh at the kid. "You can come but, if whatever you did to Clarke he jeopardises this mission, then I suggest you stay." He says and Wells shakes his head. 

 

"It won't." He replies and Bellamy nods his head before hurrying after his fellow passengers. Earth was shaping up to be a pretty dangerous place after all. 

 

**//**

 

Surprisingly, Clarke and Bellamy were walking side by side. Bellamy hadn't expected himself to gel quite so well with the blonde but her natural instincts as a leader, and her determination of finding Jasper, made the boy respect Clarke. At first, he had to admit, he’d painted Clarke as a stuck up privileged girl but that wasn't true on the ground anymore - nor was it even true on the Ark. 

 

Finn was at the front of the pack, occasionally stopping and crouching to the ground so he could track, Murphy walked behind Finn, or beside him, and the two exchanged very little words and Bellamy knew that Murphy had a knack for pissing people off without saying much but he really wasn't that bad of a guy. Wells hung way back, behind both Clarke and Bellamy, being their rear guard, though Bellamy was sure he was only there to stay out of Clarke's way. 

 

"So what's your story princess?" Bellamy asks and Clarke glances at him, adjusting the backpack strap on her shoulder. "With Wells I mean? I thought you two were best friends or something?" Clarke looks away then and shrugs her shoulder, taking a deep breath. 

 

"He killed my father." Clarke replies sharply and Bellamy feels a pang in his chest. Bellamy had never known who his father was, nor did he know who Octavia's was since they both had different dads, but he did lose his mother, who was floated solely for giving birth to another child, and that had been all Bellamy's fault, he'd only wanted to make Octavia happy, he hadn't wanted to get her locked up and his mom floated. 

 

Bellamy lets out a deep sigh at the confession and Clarke looks back at him with her deep blue eyes. "Are you sure it was him?" Bellamy asks. "I mean, Wells is a lot of things Clarke but, I don't really see him being capable of doing that, of betraying you, he doesn't seem like the type." 

 

"I didn't tell anyone else." Clarke snaps and Bellamy can tell that it's still a sore subject but he's not certain that Wells is to blame for for the death of Clarke's father. 

 

"You’re sure you didn't tell anyone else?" Bellamy asks hesitantly and Clarke remains quiet, prompting Bellamy to go on. "Not even Lexa?" Bellamy knew Lexa, of course, she had once lived near him, once upon a time, and he'd known that she was best friends with a Clarke Griffin, who was a higher social status than the two of them. 

 

Clarke falls silent, closing her eyes momentarily, and she slips her hand into her jacket pocket before reopening them. "No." Clarke replies. "I didn't tell Lexa." Bellamy frowns because, as far as he knew, Lexa and Clarke were as close as two people could be, even more than Clarke and Wells, the fact that Clarke hadn't told Lexa what was happening struck him as unusual. "I didn't want her to get hurt when it all went down but..." Clarke takes a sharp breath in and then exhales heavily. "That didn't exactly work out did it?" Clarke asks rhetorically and Bellamy smiles sadly at her. 

 

She was right, it hadn't worked out, Bellamy didn't know the specifics but, after the death of Jake Griffin, it was no secret that Clarke had disappeared, arrested, but Lexa had  _ disappeared  _ disappeared, no one had a clue what had happened to the girl, only that one day she was a citizen on the Ark and the next she was gone. She wasn't floated but Bellamy wasn't convinced they killed her either, he had assumed the girl had been locked up, like Clarke, but since she wasn't on the ground, or in the dropship with the rest of the prisoners, it looked as though Jaha must have killed the girl after all. 

 

"So no one else knew?" Bellamy asks, snapping out of his thoughts. "Not a single other person?" He asks and Clarke takes a moment to think. 

 

"My mother but..." Clarke trails off for a second before she shakes her head. "She wouldn't do that to him, she loved my father." 

 

"Sometimes love makes us do stupid things." Bellamy states. "Like when I gave in to my sister’s wishes to be allowed out of her room and got her arrested and our mother floated." 

 

"It's wrong," Clarke states. "the way the Ark did things, it was wrong." Bellamy smiles softly at that and runs a hand through his slightly damp curls, it seems the humidity was causing it to curl more than usual and the sweat from all the walking wasn't helping either, but he liked it much better than the gelled back style he'd had it in. 

 

"I agree." Bellamy replies and Clarke lets out the smallest of laughs. "They listen to you." Bellamy says and Clarke looks at him with a small frown of confusion. "The other Arkers, they listen to you, Monty, Finn, hell, even Murphy." 

 

"They listen to you too." Clarke says - blushing a little at the implied compliment that Bellamy was giving her. 

 

"They listen to me because I'm the older guy who has a gun, they listen to you because you're smart and because they  _ want  _ to." Bellamy says dismissively and Clarke laughs, smiling fully at Bellamy now, and, he had to admit that, it was a nice smile, infectious, and he wanted to see Clarke smile more often, not the constant worried expression, and serious one, she's had plastered on her face since her boots had hit the ground. 

 

"I guess we make pretty good team." Clarke says lightly and Bellamy laughs, smiling outwardly now. 

 

"If you're the princess, what does that make me?" Bellamy asks, equally as light as Clarke had been, and Clarke takes a moment to think, her blue eyes scanning the expanse of the forest. 

 

"The knight." Clarke replies. 

 

"Because of the gun?" Bellamy asks in a teasing tone and Clarke rolls her eyes playfully. 

 

"Because of the gun." She confirms. 

 

"Hey guys!" Finn yells, he had ran ahead of the group so he could see if they were going in the right direction, and, at the sound of his voice, which was low with a hint of fear, Clarke and Bellamy look at each other before running towards Finn's voice. They leap over overgrown roots and other obstacles heading towards what looked to be a clearing of sorts where Murphy was just stumbling through. Clarke couldn't be sure but she was pretty certain that Wells was right behind herself and Bellamy. 

 

"Holy shit." That's Murphy and, although he's not usually one to censor his language anyway, Clarke can hear that, whatever reason he's saying that for, is a serious one. 

 

Clarke runs past Murphy and collides with Finn's back but the boy steadies her before she can fall backwards and the blonde looks over his shoulder to see what was so shocking to the other delinquents. The sight that she saw was disturbing. Jasper was strung up to a tree, his arms above his head, his eyes were closed and he looked pretty much lifeless, except, Clarke could see the shallow rise and fall of his chest, he was shirtless, which he hadn't been before, though his goggles still sat on his head and he still had his pants on. 

 

Clarke brushes past Finn and storms towards the tree, dead set on getting the poor boy down and getting him back to camp where she could treat him. She rushes forward, not paying attention to her surroundings, when she hears a cracking sound and then the feeling of the ground beneath her feet disappears, sending her flying down into some kind of pit. Clarke twists her body in hopes of maybe trying to grab onto the edge of whatever she was falling into but she feels something tighten around her wrist and then she stops falling, hanging over a pit that has sharpened wooden sticks at the bottom, while Bellamy Blake holds her tightly, essentially keeping her from falling and saving her life. 

 

Clarke gapes up at the boy who stares down at her almost like he was surprised himself at how fast he had been to be able to catch Clarke in time. He pulls the blonde up, so she was no longer dangling over a pit of death, and stands her beside him. "Uh," Clarke clears her throat, her heart still going a mile a minute from her near death experience. "thanks." She says and he nods his head at her. 

 

"Watch where you step!" Bellamy orders. "Go do your thing princess." He says and Clarke nods her head before hurrying off towards Jasper - being careful of where she stepped now. Clarke didn't know who was on the ground but, not only had they strung Jasper up as a warning, they had hoped to kill a few more of them with their traps that they had set up around the boy. Clarke didn't know who these grounders were but she was almost certain she never wanted to meet them in person because that would probably mean death. 

 

Clarke pulls herself up the tree, managing to balance herself in the branches in order to observe Jasper more closely, she was thankful for the medical training she had had on the Ark, as limited as it was, it meant that she was the best equipped for dealing with this kind of thing, she was also thankful for her earth skills class because, by the look, texture and smell of the salve that had been used to cover Jasper's wound, it appeared as though it was seaweed. 

 

Jasper was asleep, or passed out from the pain, the latter seemed more likely, his chest had been a quick patch up but it appeared as though it had stopped the bleeding, Clarke's biggest concern was infection, and closing the wound properly, as well as pain control. Clarke looks up at his bound hands and refrains from grimacing at the thought of the process that had went through hoisting Jasper into such a position. "Here." Clarke looks down to see Murphy extending his hand, holding a knife towards Clarke. For Murphy, he looks quite reserved, maybe a little pale of colour, but he was helping which she was thankful for. 

 

Clarke takes the knife with a thankful smile and then goes for the binds of Jasper's hands. "We're going to get you home Jasper." Clarke mumbles as the bounds break. Clarke catches his limp body and calls for Bellamy to come help her. She orders Murphy and Wells to create a makeshift stretcher of some kind to help them transport Jasper while she tends to him on the ground. 

 

Clarke stares at the wound with a small frown, Jasper's chest was rising and falling with shallow breaths and his body was covered in dirt, he was burning up a little but the patch work had ultimately saved his life. "What are you thinking?" Bellamy drops down beside Clarke in a crouching position, his eyes glazing over Jasper, before turning to face Clarke again, it was obvious to him that Clarke was thinking about  _ something _ , but he had barely figured the blonde out five minutes ago, he couldn't read her every thought. 

 

"I was thinking," Clarke begins hesitantly. "why bother with the patch up?" Clarke asks gesturing to the greyish salve on Jasper's chest. "I mean, if they wanted to send a warning why bother saving his life first? They could’ve just left him strung up and dead." Clarke shakes her head. "It doesn't make sense." Bellamy looks back at Jasper and gives him a perplexed look. 

 

"I don't know." Bellamy decides, because Clarke was right, they didn't need to patch Jasper up at all, yet they had. "But I don't think we want to stick around to find out." Clarke does agree with that and, when Wells and Murphy return with their stretcher, the teens hurry to get out of there as quickly as possible.

 

**//**

On their journey back to camp, Clarke had made a point to retrieve more of the seaweed that the - what they had now decided - grounders had used to treat Jasper's wound, Clarke was sure, with her earth skills knowledge, that the seaweed had antiseptic properties, which would hopefully prevent infection, if not, the Ark had supplied them with a few antibiotics and other medical supplies - though they probably hadn't expected ‘spear to the chest’ to be an injury they'd have to face. 

 

Bellamy had left a while ago to go search for supplies in an old bunker that had been marked on one of the maps that the Ark had sent down with them, Octavia had left to go retrieve water, although that had been a while ago, and Monty and Raven sat a few feet away from Clarke discussing things that she had no clue about. Clarke had no clue where Finn was, he was probably wandering around camp trying to keep order in Bellamy's absence, but Clarke didn't really care if she was completely honest. Jasper was shivering, even though he was hot to touch, and he was sweating and a little dilutions but Clarke had stitched him up, given him some antibiotics, reapplied the seaweed and then given him some pain medication, now she was just dabbing at his head with a damp cloth to cool him while the boy regained his wits. 

 

"Maybe we could use the bracelets?" Clarke looks up at the sound of Monty's voice and suggestion. "I know Clarke said they transmit our vital signs but, if they transmit to the Ark, then maybe we could try to remove one still in tact and then use it to send a message through morse code or something?" Monty asks. Raven shifts her position, lying down on her back to access the exposed electrical work that the pair had been staring at for hours now, Monty turns to face Clarke, raising his eyebrows in silent question and Clarke sighs. 

 

"Would the Ark think that we're dying?" Clarke asks. Monty pauses for a moment. 

 

"Not if we do it right." He says. "It might take me a while but, if we manage to remove one then, it needs to still be transmitting for it to be of use so I don't really know." 

 

"Abby designed the bracelets so they would transmit vitals, you remove the bracket, they think you're dead, simple enough, so even if we remove it successfully, the Ark will still think that person is dead." Raven answers which made sense since there wouldn't be a heartbeat for it to monitor. 

 

It felt weird for Clarke to hear her mother's name spoken so casually in conversation, she remembers their brief run in before she had been tranked and sent to the ground, she hadn't seen her mom in two years, she had been cut off from talking with anyone.  _ 'Your instincts will tell you to look after everyone else first before yourself, just like your father,'  _ Clarke closes her eyes, threading her fingers through Jasper's hair, trying to bring the squirming boy some comfort.  _ 'I can't lose you too Clarke.' _ There was so much weight to that one sentence, too much for it to be of no substance, Abby had clearly meant more, it almost sounded like she was apologising. 

 

"Do it." Clarke says and Monty turns to face her. "Jasper? Do you think he'll mind?" Clarke asks carefully and Monty shakes his head. As far as Clarke knew, Monty and Jasper were as close as family, brothers of sorts, and if Monty said it was okay then it most likely was. Monty settles beside his friend and gently begins fiddling with the bracelet, shooting Clarke a small reassuring smile to comfort her. Raven stays on her back by the wires and a calm quiet settles between the teens. 

 

**//**

 

Bellamy wasn't a fan of Wells at first, mostly it was because of his father, which Bellamy knew wasn't fair to base his judgements on, but he was almost certain that Wells was so,  _ annoyingly _ , mortally good - which was why he was pretty sure now that it had not been Wells who had ratted on Clarke's father. "So who did it?" Bellamy asks as they walk through the quickly darkening forest. Night was coming in fast and, unlike on the Ark, which relied on turning the lights on and off according to when you slept, on the ground, night fell and that was it: no more light. 

 

Still, Bellamy was enjoying the darkening sky, which was pretty overcast and the low orange light made the forest look like it was on fire while also highlighting all the beautiful plants that lined it - Octavia would love walking through the, forest she always has had an adventurous side to her. "Excuse me?" Wells asks, he was a little behind Bellamy, probably hoping to avoid talking to him, but Bellamy wasn't deterred, he had to make sure that wells was a good guy like his gut told him he was. 

 

"Clarke told me that only two people knew about her father," Bellamy begins and Wells remains silent. "you and her mother." Bellamy states, he glances behind him to see that Wells had his jaw clenched as he stares down at the ground. "You didn't rat on him, I know that, so who did?" He asks again. There's a long silence, and Bellamy feels as though Wells might just ignore the question, until he feels a shoulder brush his own and the boy is beside him with a somber expression. 

 

"I did." He replies and Bellamy shakes his head in disbelief. 

 

"No,  _ you  _ didn't." Bellamy retorts, narrowing his eyes. "You don't seem like the betrayal type so why are you making yourself a martyr? Is it really worth it? Clarke hating you just so she won't hate-" Bellamy stops in his tracks, his eyes widening and his breath catching in his throat in realisation.

 

_ Only  _ two  _ people knew about Clarke's father.  _

 

"It was her mom." It's not a question, Wells knows that, and Bellamy knows that, it's a statement, it's the  _ truth _ , and it's heartbreaking to say the least. "Her mom told Jaha and got her dad executed and you're taking the fall? Why? You're lying to her." Bellamy was suddenly angry with the boy, shoving him on his shoulder and Wells grunts at the impact but, mostly, he's solid in his stance - Bellamy's actually surprised at how firm and strong Wells' muscles really are. 

 

"I'd rather her hate me then her own mother." Wells spits. "Do you- If Clarke knew that hurt, that  _ hate _ , it'd destroy her, and I'd rather she tear me down than herself." 

 

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Bellamy scoffs, shoving past Wells by bumping his shoulder against him in another hard shove. The boy whirls, following hot on Bellamy's trail as they break out of the treeline to a clearing of destroyed old structures of concrete scattered around. This was where the bunker was, probably hidden under years of undergrowth and leaves, this might take longer than he thought. 

 

"When you love someone, you'd do anything for them." Wells says interrupting Bellamy's momentary distraction from the discussion. The shaggy haired boy snorts at that, beginning to scout the area for the bunker. 

 

"So you love her?" Bellamy asks rolling his eyes - he wasn't much for the Disney movie kind of fairy tails, like this one was beginning to sound like. 

 

"She's my best friend." Wells states. "Of course I love her." 

 

"I always thought that Lexa and Clarke were in love." Bellamy admits. Those two were inseparable on the Ark but there was an intensity to them that said that their love was a little more than just ‘best friends’, not that Bellamy saw them together a lot, but, what he had seen, he was convinced that there was something there. 

 

"Lexa was for sure." Wells mutters and Bellamy raises an eyebrow at the hint of jealousy in his tone. "Clarke was too but, she just didn't know she was." Wells sighs. "So yeah, I love her like a best friend because, Clarke's heart has been taken for a really long time, and I know that Lexa's..." Wells trails off for a second and Bellamy gets that he's probably searching for the right word. "death, hasn't fully hit her yet." Bellamy nods his head. "She's going to need someone there for her when it  does." Wells murmurs and Bellamy turns to look at him. "She likes you, she won't admit it but she does, you two make a good team." Bellamy smiles at that when his foot snags on something and he trips, face first, into the leafy ground below him - at least it wasn't mud or concrete. 

 

Wells barely manages to stifle his laugh at the sight and Bellamy huffs at him, dusting himself down with a scowl at the boy. He looks to see what he tripped on when he sees a metal handle poking out from the pile of leaves it was buried under. Bellamy begins sweeping the leaves aside to reveal a metal hatch below:  _ the bunker _ . "Listen," Bellamy grunts as he tightens his grip on the hatch. "the truth has a way of coming out, you should tell her, the selfless martyr act doesn't help Clarke, she's hating the wrong person." Wells wraps his hands around Bellamy's on the handle, which surprises the shaggy haired boy and his eyes snap up to look at Wells but he's concentrated on pulling.  _ Oh _ .  _ He was helping _ . 

 

Bellamy pulls hard and, with Wells’ added strength, the pair are able to pry it open with minimal difficulty. "She doesn't need me but she does need her mom." Wells replies, shaking his head. "And she needs  _ you  _ when Lexa's death finally hits her." 

 

"No." Bellamy shakes his head stubbornly, lowering himself down into the hatch, his feet catching on the rungs of a ladder, he pulls the flashlight from his back pocket and turns it on before placing it between his teeth. "She needs  _ you _ ." Bellamy disappears down the hatch and Wells groans when he has to follow. 

 

They land side by side on solid concrete flooring, it was pitch black in the bunker, the only light coming from their flashlights, the beams of light cut through the space like headlights of a car and Bellamy begins walking further into the bunker with Wells trailing behind him. "This place reeks." Bellamy says taking a big breath in and instantly regretting it when he's hit with a stench that has him very nearly retching. He takes another step and hears the unmistakable noise of water beneath his feet. It's a puddle, small, but enough for Bellamy to know that it's the source of the sour stench - stagnated water had the worst smell and, even worse, stagnated almost  _ one hundred year old  _ water. 

 

They venture deeper into the bunker until it opens out at the end, it's not very big, there are a few barrels, that Bellamy supposes holds supplies, a few cots, from whoever had been planning on using this bunker for safety once upon a time ago, but that was about it, nothing really caught Bellamy's eyes except for the barrels. "We should take some of those cots." Wells says. "Maybe we could send more people back?" He suggests and Bellamy nods his head in agreement. "Most of the food will be bad." Wells sighs pressing a hand to his head in the dark. 

 

"I think  _ all  _ of the food will be bad." Bellamy says sarcastically. "I know canned food lasts a few years but I've never heard of a can of beans that had a use by date for a hundred years." Wells rolls his eyes, which is barely noticeable in the dark but Bellamy notices anyway, and the curly haired boy chuckles softly to himself. 

 

Wells begins opening first barrel, sifting through its contents with a fast pace, while Bellamy opens another. "Look," Wells distracts Bellamy and the boy turns to see the other boy holding a packet in his hand, up in the air, for Bellamy to see. "astronaut ice cream." Wells says. 

 

"How ironic." Bellamy drawls but Wells' bright white smile is vivid in the dark of the bunker and Bellamy finds himself grinning back because it was kind of funny that two people, who had literally come from space, had just found astronaut ice cream. 

 

Bellamy turns back to what he was doing, shaking out thoughts about how, if the world was still normal, and someone asked him where he was born, he would've answered, in the fourth cycle of the Ark around the earth, or, hey, maybe he'd just say in a vacuum just to freak people out. He flips the top off of the barrel and lets it fall to the ground. 

 

At first, Bellamy stares at the barrel in confusion, at first glance, it just looked like black liquid but then he notices the barrel of something hollow sticking out of the liquid. He pulls the barrel out and his heart momentarily stops and restarts itself. "Oh shit." Bellamy says placing his flashlight down to hold the object in both his hands. It was a sleek, black machine gun, heavy in his hands but in perfect condition thanks to the oil liquid it had been preserved in. "We have some defense against the grounders now." Bellamy says, holding the gun up at Wells who looks just as shocked as Bellamy felt a minute ago. 

 

"They're not going to know what hit them." Bellamy begins sizing the object up, shifting into different poses as Wells shined his torch on the boy. Bellamy grins at him and Wells just shakes his head. "There's got to be ammo around here." Bellamy looks around, picking his flashlight up again to search the bunker. 

 

"I don't think giving guns to a bunch of juvenile offenders is such a good idea." Wells says cautiously - mainly because people would probably want his blood. 

 

"No." Bellamy says, agreeing with Wells, because, no, that wasn't a good idea. "But the people I trust, the people who I know won't abuse their power, I'll give a weapon to." Bellamy decides. "Monroe, Harper, Miller, Jasper, Raven, hell, even Clarke, we can make our own guard down here on the ground, only to make us safe of course, there will be no executing people, not down here." Bellamy's voice is firm and final and Wells gives him an impressed look. 

 

"You sound like a real leader." He comments and Bellamy finds a carton and jingles it to hear the sound of bullets rattling around inside. "And Murphy?" Wells asks quietly. Bellamy glances up from where he was sliding a bullet into the chamber. 

 

"Murphy is a good guy, I know he's got his issues but, he wouldn't hurt you if I told him not to." 

 

"That's not very comforting." Wells says dryly. Bellamy sighs and pulls another gun from the barrel, he tosses it towards Wells and offers him a reassuring smile. 

 

"Consider yourself under my protection Prince Charming." Bellamy teases. "I'm the knight in shining armour, at your service." Bellamy does a little bow and Wells let's out a breathy laugh, shaking his head. 

 

"Prince Charming huh?" Wells asks with a raised brow. Bellamy begins stuffing his pack with guns and ammo, wanting to carry as much as he could, and, since Wells had blankets and other supplies, he wouldn't be needing the space for that, plus, they'd be sending more people back to get everything they possibly could from the bunker. 

 

Bellamy turns to him, holding his gun across his chest while several more stick out from his pack and his pistol sits on his hip. Wells had to admit, he looked something like a soldier, like that of a modern day knight, if he was going by Bellamy's words. "You can be charming," Bellamy says before he grins at the boy again. "you charmed me." He takes off towards the ladder after that and Wells stumbles after him, blushing, and he thanks some sort of higher power that it was too dark to see. 

 

The two boys emerge from the bunker with their packs as full as they could manage and they begin their journey back home. They were walking leisurely through the forest when movement catches Bellamy's eye, he snaps in that direction, holding his gun up and staring down the barrel. His finger teases the trigger but he stops short when he sees a familiar face staring back at him. "Octavia?" Bellamy asks. 

 

"Don't shoot him." Octavia says and Bellamy frowns. He lowers his gun, stepping forward to ask what Octavia meant, when he sees him a man standing just behind Octavia, dressed in ragged clothes that were patched and dirty, he appeared to have some kind of paint over his eyes and Bellamy's heart jumps right out of his chest.

 

**//**

Monty lets out an exasperated shout when he fails to remove Raven's bracelet in the right way. "Great." Raven says with a wide smile. "Now I can pretend I'm dead and then start a new life with a new name." Raven was trying to lighten Monty's mood but, after failing to remove Jasper's and Raven's and Raven failing to remove Monty's, he was more frustrated with himself than the time he had forgotten to replace what he had taken from the garden and gotten Jasper and himself arrested. "Don't worry Monty, you'll figure it out." Raven places a comforting hand on his shoulder and the boy just gives her a look. "Maybe we can contact the Ark some other way?" Raven suggests. Clarke glances down at her own wristband, biting her lip in contemplation, when Jasper lets out a small cough. 

 

"Jasper." Clarke says with a bright smile as the boy stirs awake. He blinks a couple of times and in an instant Monty and Raven are by his side. 

 

"Hey idiot." Monty greets with a happy smile and Clarke can see how much relief he's in by the way his eyes are watering ever so slightly and the way his voice sounds. 

 

"I'm not an idiot." Jasper protests his words are a little slow and slurred together but that's mostly due to the morphine Clarke gave him for the pain. 

 

"Tell that to the spear that pierced your chest." Monty replies fondly. Clarke excuses herself from the two boys after checking Jasper's pulse a final time. She stands up and Raven joins her side as they walk towards the exit of the dropship. 

 

"I was thinking, maybe we could use flares?" Raven asks and Clarke thinks about it. 

 

"Would the Ark even be able to see them down here?" Clarke asks unsurely. Raven shrugs her shoulders but gives Clarke a bright smile that Clarke was beginning to think was just the Raven Reyes standard smile. 

 

"It's not an exact science blondie, not like the radio type anyway, but if the ark sees it then at least they know we're not dying down here, right?" Raven asks nudging Clarke. It was a good plan but there were too many variables, there was no way to know if the ark had seen their message or not, and weather conditions and all sorts came into play, but, if the wristbands weren't working, and Raven couldn't figure out how to repair the transmitter or whatever, without many spare parts, they'd have to improvise a little and this was as good as it was going to get. 

 

"We should do it." Clarke decides and Raven nods her head. 

 

"Grounder!" Clarke and Raven both look at each other with wide eyes when they hear the screech from outside. They begin running in the direction of it, hoping to God that the grounders hadn't infiltrated their camp. 

 

They exit the dropship and an assembled crowd greets then immediately, the fence that they had been building is only a quarter of the way built but at least it's coming along - Clarke suspects, had they had more time, it would probably be done by now. Clarke pushes her way through the crowd and, once they recognise who she is, the delinquents part automatically. When she stumbles out the last stretch her eyes widen comically at the sight she sees before her. 

 

Bellamy and Wells have a guy gripped by the forearms where they clearly dragged him all the way back from wherever they found him, the man has blood running down from his nose and he appears to be unconscious. Bellamy has a gun slung over his shoulder - which is new - and there's blood on the butt of the gun, suggesting that he'd hit the grounder in the nose and knocked him out. 

 

Clarke stares in shock for a moment when she notices Octavia standing only a few feet away with a pained expression. "Octavia?" Clarke asks in surprise - she had sent the girl to get water which wasn't anywhere near where Bellamy and Wells had been going. "Are you okay?" Clarke steps forward and gently moves Octavia's hair to one side to see a cut just at her hairline, it doesn't look like anything serious though she may have a concussion from whatever hit her there. 

 

"I'm fine." Octavia grunts, avoiding Clarke's touch, she juts her chin out towards the grounder, who was still unconscious, and Clarke follows her gesture. 

 

"What happened?" Clarke asks, stepping away from Octavia to kneel in front of the grounder. 

 

"What happened is someone let my sister out of camp and this thing attacked her." Bellamy grounds out, he's furious and Clarke knows it's to do with the fact that Octavia had been in danger. 

 

"He didn't attack me!" Octavia protests. "He saved me. I tripped and hit my head when I went to get water, he came and helped me." Octavia explains mostly to Clarke. "He didn't want to hurt me, he wanted to help me." 

 

" _ Skaikru _ ." The man mumbles and Clarke snaps her head in his direction, seeing that he was waking up. She orders Bellamy to take him somewhere that isn't so out in the open, if this grounder was nearby, then others could be watching too, not to mention the fact that he's just spoken some kind of foreign language that Clarke didn't recognise one bit. Bellamy and Wells begin dragging him towards the dropship and Octavia makes a face of horror. 

 

"They'll torture him Clarke!" Octavia protests and Clarke rests her hand on the girl's shoulder. 

 

"I won't let that happen, okay?" Clarke promises because they're a lot of things but  _ torture _ ? That isn't something that they do. Octavia nods, taking a deep breath in, before they begin walking back towards the dropship. Finn is standing by the doors and Raven stops by to talk to him while Octavia and Clarke continue inside. "Make sure you get those flares built as soon as possible." Clarke says in passing and Raven nods already talking to Finn about what she needed. 

 

They walk into the dropship to find the first level empty, except for Jasper and Monty, so Clarke assumes they took the guy upstairs - which is quite impressive considering the guy had been huge. Clarke and Octavia climb up the ladder and Clarke almost groans when she sees Murphy up in the grounder’s face while Bellamy, Wells and Atom stand to one side. Bellamy looks severely unimpressed, his arms crossed over his chest, he has a bag of guns deposited to his right and he still has his pistol on his hip but he at least got rid of the rifle. "Murphy, get away from him." Clarke orders. The boy looks over his shoulder and snarls at Clarke but steps away nethertheless. 

 

Clarke walks towards the grounder cautiously, they'd chained his hands, so he was stood in a kind of starfish formation, and they'd ripped his shirt open and off to expose his flesh underneath - which really may as well have been rock. He looked like he had been sculpted by a Greek god. 

 

"Help." Clarke says extending her hand to the man. He stares blankly at Clarke and Clarke gets the sense that he has completely no idea what she's talking about. She touches her nose and then gestures to the man's before repeating "Help." to show him what she meant. She gestures for Octavia to come and assist her as Clarke cleans his nose and checks to see if it was broken - which it's not, of course, he's too hard for it to have broken his nose. Clarke's surprised that he actually looks normal, compared to the skull they had found, Clarke had had awful images of what the grounders looked like but this man looked normal, he looked human, so Clarke assumes that means the rest probably do too. 

 

"What's your name?" Clarke asks, she's not sure why she asks, considering he clearly doesn't understand English, but there's this little glint in his eye that suggests that maybe,  _ just maybe _ , he does understand everything Clarke is saying. "I'm Clarke." Clarke gestures to herself. "This is Octavia." Clarke tugs on Octavia's arm. The man's eyes linger on Octavia for longer than they did on Clarke and she furrows her brow at the interaction between the two. "Bellamy." Clarke points to the curly haired boy. "Wells." Clarke says. "And that's Murphy, Miller and Atom." Clarke gestures to the group of boys behind her. She turns back to the grounder and gestures to him like she had to the others, showing him that she wanted to know his name. 

 

"Lincoln." He grunts. Clarke smiles, nodding her head, she slips her hand into her pocket and plays with the photo there. 

 

"Lincoln." Clarke repeats, nodding her head enthusiastically. "That's a good name." Clarke comments. She pulls her hand from her pocket when the picture slips from her grip and flutters to the ground between them. The man, Lincoln, watches as it falls and it lands between them, face up, showing the picture off to mainly just Lincoln and Octavia who were the closest to Clarke. Lincoln takes a sharp breath in and Clarke scoops the picture up quickly, not wanting anyone to see it. 

 

" _ Heda _ ." Lincoln says, his eyes are wide as he stares at Clarke. "Clarke." He says and Clarke frowns at him in confusion, it sounded like he recognised her now, he was looking at her differently, like pieces of a puzzle that had finally come together, but Clarke doesn't have time to question him on it before Bellamy's shoving his way past Clarke and Octavia. 

 

"We need to get information from him." Bellamy sneers. "This isn't working, it's dark out there, we need to know if others are watching us, we need to know if it's  _ safe _ ." Bellamy says and Clarke gets it, she does, but torturing the man isn't going to make the best of impressions on his other people. 

 

"Bellamy, if we torture him then we might as well say goodbye to peace." Clarke says. "I get what you're saying but I think your motives are a little twisted right now." Clarke glances at Octavia and Bellamy flares his nostrils, he was just angry because the man had been with his sister when they'd found him, it had very little to do with the fact that he was a grounder. 

 

"Clarke!" Clarke hears her name being yelled by Raven outside and the blonde rolls her eyes. hurrying to go take care of whatever was needed of her now. She climbs down the ladder and hurries outside of the dropship, passing a clueless Monty and Jasper on the way, the pair seemed to be catching up, though Jasper was still pale and sweaty. 

 

Clarke exits the dropship and immediately wraps her jacket tighter around herself, it wasn't terribly cold but it was clearly coming to an end of Fall and Winter would be in full swing soon enough. It's turned dark, it's cloudy and Clarke's estimates that it'll probably rain sometime this week - though she's not exactly an expert in Earth's weather. 

 

Clarke sees some launch pads set up, with Raven in the centre, twirling a spanner, that Clarke doesn't even want to think about where she got it from, she's grinning, with her eyebrows raised and Clarke rolls her eyes at how absolutely smug she looks. "Four flares at your service." Raven says with a wide grin. "These babies should cut right through that cloud cover and the Ark will totally be able to see them, if my calculations are correct, which, of course they are." Clarke rolls her eyes at Raven's cockiness and sarcasm. Raven is a refined taste, Clarke knows that, the whole hundred know that, but she hasn't failed to make Clarke feel better and safe once and Clarke weirdly trusts her - probably more than she trusts most people around her. 

 

"Just waiting for your say boss before I launch them?" Raven asks holding up a button, she tosses the remote to Clarke who stares at it for a moment, it's relatively simple: send the flares up, contact the Ark, they realise the ground is safe, they all come down to earth to help with their situation, but also, press the button and every grounder within their immediate distance (and more) will likely see the flares too and give away their location, that's if they didn't know already, it's not like Lincoln had just been strolling through the woods, it was likely that he had been watching them. 

 

Clarke runs her thumb over the button and places her hand into her pocket, gripping the picture there tightly, she knows it's lame but all she can think is what would Lexa do and the answer is pretty simple: she'd press it, of course she would, Lexa would always do what was right, what would save the  _ most  _ people, and pressing that button is exactly that, they signal for help, the more likely their survival, but Clarke hesitates still. It's possible that the flares won't work, though Raven seems pretty confident they will, then again, Raven is always confident, but Clarke has to take this chance, she  _ has  _ to, she has to save people, not get them killed. 

 

She presses the button and jumps when she hears a loud hissing noise, her head snaps up to see the flares glowing red and then a loud gush of air cuts through the silent night as the flares zoom off into the sky, they cut through the cloud, just like Raven said, and fly high in the sky until Clarke can only just make out their glow - the Ark will definitely most likely see them. 

 

Clarke smiles softly as she tosses the remote back to Raven who makes a smartass comment of "Fly my pretties." that coaxes an amused laugh from the blonde. Clarke steps towards Raven but freezes when she hears someone yelling from inside of the dropship, it cuts through the excited chatter like scissors to fabric, and Clarke's stomach drops when she recognised the voice as Octavia's. " _ Stop _ ! What the hell is wrong with you!"

 

**//**

Lexa liked to stand outside on the balcony to the throne room whenever possible, she enjoyed feeling the breeze run over her face, through her hair and ripple through her clothes, it was a gentle breeze, though it was obviously becoming more biting than usual. She'd been in meetings all day, thanks to her demand as the commander, and hadn't been outside all day, or all night, and she hadn't spoken to anyone of her own clan, or any friends, for so long - not that she had many friends. 

 

Lincoln was her only real friend, and maybe Indra, though she was more of a confidante than anything. Ever since Lexa has been on the ground, every step she's taken has been a battle, everything she's done has taken a part of her away, chipped her away, slowly, she holds a long list of names of people who she has taken the life of but most she doesn't know,  _ too many she doesn't know. _ She murdered 381 people, and more still, to get to where she is now, to be respected by the grounders, it earned her strength, power, respect and she's known as ruthless yet smart and, deep down, people know that Lexa is peaceful, they know that their  _ Heda  _ wants nothing more than peace between the nations, though Azgeda makes her goals hard more often than not. 

 

It's a peaceful night in Polis, the locals have turned in for the night, though Lexa can see a few people wondering around, they're probably merchants, travelers come to sell their goods and move on to a smaller villages nearby before returning later with more goods. Polis is always alive with life,  _ always _ , it's the only thing Lexa has created rather than destroyed and she takes pride in it more than the deaths that she has become known for. 

 

She clasps her hands behind her back and takes a deep breath in before slowly exhaling in a lazy sigh. People don't get to see Lexa like this, at peace, though she is always calm and stoic, a concrete wall that rarely shows any sign of emotion, but she allows herself to just relax in her own presence and she allows a small smile to grace her lips when the wind hits her again and causes her coat to flutter in the wind. 

 

_ Everything is calm.  _

 

_ Everything is okay.  _

 

She's dressed in her traditional commander clothes: her coat, her shoulder guard, her sash, the whole lot, and she knows that she should retire back to her room for the night but Lexa doesn't like going back there, not since  _ the incident _ , so she's quite content to just stand and do nothing else. She stares up at the blanket of clouds in the sky, she knows that the stars are up there, and she knows the brightest one is the Ark where Clarke is probably sitting, locked up, in a cell, drawing no doubt, she loves to draw. 

 

Lexa glances behind her a little to see the easel that she'd dragged out of her room after everything, there's still a pencil sitting there, unused, Lexa had found the utensil once when exploring the forest with Lincoln, she'd given it to Costia as a gift and the woman had said "I cannot use this, it is special, rare, like you, one of a kind." Lexa didn't have the heart to tell the girl that it was just a pencil and she, Lexa, was just a girl - there nothing special about that at all. 

 

So she's humoured Costia, even teased the girl about the fact that she wouldn't use it, but Lexa got it now, she understood the importance of that pencil, it had a history that neither of them could begin to comprehend, and Lexa had a history that none of the grounders could ever understand. Lexa wasn't special, she was just  _ foreign _ , just like the pencil, she wasn't understood until she did what she had to do to survive, until she became a grounder and her history was erased. 

 

She's more  _ Trikru  _ than she ever was one of the sky people, they never got Lexa, never even tried, at least the grounders accepted Lexa (though it had taken some time) and trained her, helped her to become one of them, the sky people had just blacklisted her. 

 

_ Troublemaker. Troublemaker. Troublemaker.  _

 

Lexa lets a low growl escape her vocal cords and her face falls back to its preset expressionless setting. She closes her eyes and lets her anger simmer, but never lets it boil over, and then, like a cool breeze on a burn, Lexa sees a flash of blonde and blue and she feels her anger extinguish. Clarke took the time to see Lexa, the  _ real  _ Lexa, she never blacklisted her, and neither did Jake, but Jake was dead and Clarke wasn’t here. Lexa feels a sour taste in her mouth and she opens her eyes again in frustration. 

 

She didn't know how long it had been, sometimes months felt like years, sometimes Lexa thinks that maybe Jaha was lying about sending the hundred down, that he'd simply wanted to kill Lexa, but she doesn't like to think about him often, maybe she'll never meet her best friend again, and she comes very close to falling into a pit of anger and despair but she never allows herself to do so. 

 

She searches the sky and stops dead in her search when she sees a low burning of red in a break of the clouds. Lexa knows what they are, she knows exactly what they are:  _ flares _ . A spark of excitement, an emotion that Lexa had thought had long since been erased from her memory, bursts in her chest and Lexa leans her hands on the edge of her balcony and leans over to watch as the red glow of the flares disappears overhead. She smiles, dazed and happy, before she realises what this means. 

 

Her people won't understand this, they'll think it's an attack, and when the flares crash they'll hit something, hopefully water, or somewhere away from a village, but they'll hit  _ something  _ and her people cannot be stopped if people are injured.  _ Jus drein jus daun. _ That is their way. Lexa rocks back onto the balls of her feet, her heavy boots thudding with the sudden weight that Lexa feels pool in her chest. Then, like everything suddenly catches up with her, the sound of someone bursting through the throne room's door rips through Lexa's calm and quiet. 

 

" _ Heda _ ." 

 

Lexa twists on her heel, her body jerking to attention, she practically feels her whole body stiffen, every muscle, as she stands as stiff and tall as a rod, showing off her commanding presence as best as possible. Lexa should reprimand her for entering without knocking first but it's Indra and she's known to have a soft spot for the woman. She knows why Indra looks exhausted anyway and she knows why the woman looks worried which,  _ actually _ , is a very rare sight. 

 

" _ Veida _ ." Indra snarls and Lexa steps into the doorway of the balcony. "In  _ Trikru  _ territory  _ Heda _ ." Indra says her lips curling up and Lexa turns her head to the side, lifting her chin, she narrows her eyes and watches as the woman straightens out. 

 

" _ Skaikru _ ?" Lexa asks and Indra nods her head, bowing herself slightly to show her respect. "Tell me of the news." Lexa instructs and Indra gives a curt nod. 

 

"At first we were just going to let them be and inform you as soon as possible," Indra explains. "but then they began heading towards the mountain, we feared that they had an alliance with the mountain  _ Heda- _ " 

 

"The mountain is destroyed." Lexa interrupts sternly and Indra nods in agreement. 

 

"Yes  _ Heda _ , I know, but it was thought that maybe they wished to gain access, that maybe they had contacted the mountain before it fell," Indra visibly swallows, eyeing Lexa's tense frame, and the brunette internally sighs, feeling a stab of pain in her heart. "we attacked a boy and strung him up as a warning." Indra informs and Lexa closes her eyes for a moment - she really hopes that wasn't someone she knew. "They found  _ fayogons Heda,  _ then fired missiles through the air." Lexa frowns at Indra, letting her green eyes cut through the dimly lit room. 

 

"How did you arrive so quick?" Lexa asks, genuinely confused, Polis was a two day ride at least - one if you were an experienced rider and navigator. 

 

"Lincoln, he was captured, I sent him and told him to give me word on those...  _ radios _ ? You gave us as I headed to Polis to give you word." Lexa resists the urge to smile at the way Indra sounded confused by the word radio but she ignores it and simply nods her head. So Indra had been riding all day, and then it hits her,  _ Lincoln was captured? _

 

"Is there any other information?" Lexa asks and Indra pauses. "Their leaders appear to be a boy, he's foolish  _ Heda _ , always quick to anger, but there's another girl, she's blonde, she seems to be their main leader, they all listen to her when she talks, even when it's mostly against the boy's wishes." Lexa feels pride wake in her chest accompanied by hope and love. Clarke is okay, she's okay, she's okay.  _ Clarke is on the ground _ . 

 

Lexa glances at the pencil on the easel and then looks back at Indra. "We ride to TonDC as soon as possible." Lexa says, that was Indra's village and it was probably closer to the sky people’s camp than any other village. "Two days at most." Lexa warns, she plucks up the pencil and stashes it safely in her coat sleeve. "We leave at dawn." She says firmly before walking past Indra and exiting the throne room. She'd soon be reunited with her best friend.

 

**//**

 

Clarke was sick of Bellamy. The boy hadn't been too bad, in fact, Clarke had thought they had come to some kind of agreement but then he started torturing Lincoln and Clarke's pretty sure it comes down to one thing and one thing only: Octavia. It's clear that the grounder has a soft spot for Octavia and Bellamy is taking his whole big brother act to a whole new level. Clarke had actually had to sleep by Lincoln's side just to prevent the boy from torturing him further. Now, she was here, her hand on Bellamy's chest, stood between him and the chained up grounder, whose head was tilted to the ground, and that was dripping with blood, Octavia was just behind Clarke, acting as a second wall to Lincoln's defense. Despite the fact that Lincoln didn't appear to speak English, and nor did he appear to show any signs of actually giving up any sort information, Bellamy still insisted on whipping the boy with a seatbelt to try to get the grounder to talk. 

 

"Bellamy." Clarke presses harder against his chest and holds the boy's brown gaze. "You need to stop, you're ruining everything." Clarke grits out, pushing the boy forcefully backwards, Bellamy's lackies, Atom and Murphy, stand to one side, while Wells is stood at the back with his arms across his chest. 

 

" _ He- _ !" Bellamy goes to complain but Clarke silences him with a stern glare. 

 

"He what?" Clarke asks harshly. "He's done nothing other than save Octavia and you torturing him will only make the other grounders hate us, they'll never consider peace if we torture one of them." Clarke emphasises and Bellamy snarls at the boy, glaring holes into him. 

 

"If we release him then he'll tell them all that he's learnt about us." Bellamy reasons. "We know nothing about them. I can get him to talk." Bellamy presses forward again but Clarke doesn't shift - especially with the added support from Octavia. Clarke was desperate, so she shifts her gaze from Bellamy and looks to Wells, giving him the best pleading look she could manage, before quickly redirecting her gaze so she didn't have to look at the boy for too long. 

 

"Bellamy." Wells steps forward and Clarke feels Bellamy tense before he backs away and turns to face Wells. "Maybe we should take a break?" Wells suggests. "Let Clarke heal him and then we'll come back to it, maybe he'll be so grateful he'll tell us something, but we still have other things to do." Wells says and Bellamy narrows his eyes. 

 

"Like what?" He asks lowly and Wells glances at Lincoln, then Clarke, then Octavia, before landing back on Bellamy. 

 

"Like the bunker," He says and Bellamy seems to deflate slightly, his defensive stance receding. "like the wall, like shelter, food, water,  _ supplies _ , we should focus on that before we start trying to shake him for anymore answers." Bellamy turns back to Clarke, shoots Lincoln a murderous glare before he whips around and gestures for Murphy and Atom to follow him. Once he's gone, Clarke breathes a sigh of relief and Octavia begins fussing over Lincoln, gently wiping at his face with a damp cloth. 

 

Wells steps forward and clears his throat awkwardly which catches Clarke's attention. "I should go with him." Wells says and Clarke shrugs her shoulders half heartedly, not wanting to turn to look at her childhood friend. 

 

"Whatever Wells." Clarke says flatly. She hears the boy hesitate before he exits down the ladder to go catch up with Bellamy. Clarke shakes off her soured mood and begins examining the lacerations to Lincoln's stomach, they weren't that deep, though they'd probably scar, none required stitches, Clarke could just clean them and that should be enough, though his face was bruised and bloody from the beating he had taken. 

 

"I'm sorry about this." Clarke says grabbing some of Monty's moonshine that he’d made to celebrate Jasper's awakening - Clarke figured it was better to use the raw alcohol, rather than the one the Ark sent down, just to save supplies. "I hope your leader doesn't pin us all as being like Bellamy." 

 

"He's a dick." Octavia grumbles and the grounder, who Clarke had thought was pretty much unconscious, let's out a small laugh. Clarke raises her eyebrows in surprise at the laugh because,  _ clearly _ , Lincoln understood them, which meant he spoke English. 

 

"You understand what we're saying." Clarke comments, dabbing at the man's wound, he lets out a low hiss at the contact but then quickly steels himself back to his impassive expression. 

 

"Yes." He grunts and Octavia stares at the boy in disbelief. "We're trained to speak in our native tongue around enemies so that they don't know that we can understand them." Lincoln says standing up more fully now. "We're also trained to never betray any information, no matter how much torture we’re put through, because giving up information would mean death." He says and Clarke draws in a sharp breath at the confession. She hands Octavia the rag to finish the job and goes to the other side of the room to root through supplies. 

 

"I'm sorry about Bellamy." Clarke apologises. "I know he thinks he's doing the right thing, but I just don't think he understands what exactly he's doing, he just wants to protect Octavia." 

 

"I can handle myself." Octavia snarls and Lincoln's lips tilt up in a small smile. 

 

"I know." Clarke says, coming back over with clothes clutched in her hand. "I need you to contact your leader." Clarke says dumping the clothes in front of Lincoln. She nods at Octavia to unchain the man and Clarke stands tall and authoritative with her hands on her hips.

 

"The Commander is an old friend of mine." Lincoln replies, sighing with relief when the first chain on his wrist is undone. "I can gain her audience, but, if she will listen, I do not know." 

 

"Your commander can talk to me." Clarke says. "How long until you can speak to her?" Lincoln gives Clarke an appreciative look his lips pressing into a tight line. 

 

"It depends, three days if she is in Polis, and because of my condition, but it's likely that she's on her way here anyway," Lincoln explains. "your people are a threat, she has to deal with new threats and eliminate them before they become something to worry about." Lincoln's voice is cold and sure and Clarke feels a chill run down her spine at them. The boy rubs his wrists when Octavia finally frees him and Clarke looks at the girl briefly before facing Lincoln again. 

 

" _ But _ ," he says before Clarke can say anything. "I think the commander will wish to speak to you before she does anything." Lincoln says and his voice is almost knowing, like he knows something that Clarke hasn’t quite catched onto yet. Clarke gestures towards the clothes and the boy picks them up, his shirt had been destroyed when Bellamy had ripped it open and then tortured him with his bare flesh, so the least Clarke could do was offer him a shirt and a jacket. 

 

Lincoln scoops them up and puts them on, the shirt just barely fits his muscular frame and he pulls the jacket on with a grunt of pain. "You should expect the commander's arrival soon." Lincoln says. "I cannot tell you if she will be accepting of you or not, but she's smart, she'll think of something." Lincoln glances at Octavia briefly and Clarke clears her throat looking away from the pair, she takes a few steps away to allow them to talk in private and almost does a double take when she sees them kissing. She tries to ignore the spark of jealousy in her chest at the fact that Octavia had found someone like that so quickly, it's irrational, but it's also human to feel envious of such things, Clarke fiddles with the photograph in her pocket and redirects her eyes away from the pair. 

 

Once they're done talking, Clarke calls down to Raven, to make sure that the coast was clear, they climb down the ladder, Lincoln with some difficulty, and come face to face with Raven, Monty, Jasper and Finn. "Are you sure about this Clarke?" Finn asks. Octavia steps forward defensively but Clarke simply lays a gentle hand on her shoulder and the brunette relaxes letting out an aggravated huff. 

 

"You have to trust that I'm doing what is best for my people." Clarke says. Monty nods immediately, Jasper looks a little out of it, probably from the pain medication, Raven has her usual bright smile on, but she trusts Clarke, and Clarke knows it, and Finn gives her a weary look. " _ Peace _ is what's best for our people, letting Lincoln go is the easiest way to achieve this." Clarke reasons. Finn still looks unsure but he reluctantly nods his head in agreement. 

 

Raven lifts the hatch that leads under the dropship, she drops down inside so she can help Lincoln find his way out. Octavia watches as Lincoln leaves and then faces Clarke. "Bellamy won't like this." She says and Clarke looks at the open hatch, the sound of Raven's rambling about mechanics drifting up every so often offers Clarke a weird sense of comfort. 

 

"I know." Clarke replies.

 

**//**

"I've failed with pretty much every bracelet, so, if those flares didn't work, then the Ark will think we're dying." Monty was sitting beside Raven, who was tinkering with more wiring, the brunette was sure she could make a radio, she just needed a working bracelet in order to reach the Ark. 

 

"Don't call me an engineer," Raven scoffs. "those flares definitely worked." 

 

"I'm just saying, the flares are circumstantial, they could take them as a warning rather than a signal." Monty reasons and Raven groans, throwing her tools down with a clatter, she hadn't thought about that. 

 

"Guys," Clarke interrupts. "we have to keep trying either way." She replies. "Bellamy will be back soon and when he finds out that Lincoln is no longer here..." Clarke trails off and grimaces at the thought of Bellamy's reaction. 

 

"Shit." Raven says in exasperation. 

 

"Bellamy,  _ wait _ !" Clarke, Raven and Monty all snap to attention at the sound of Octavia's voice. The boy comes storming into the dropship, glances at the group, before he begins climbing up the ladder. Clarke swiftly follows, sending Monty and Raven a look to continue, she climbs up the ladder and finds Bellamy crouched in front of the empty chains, holding them in one hand as he stares at them with burning anger. 

 

He stands up so fast that Clarke gets whiplash from how quickly he moves, he whirls on Clarke, his face contorted in pure anger. "What the hell Clarke?" He growls. "You let the enemy go?" He raises his voice to a low yelling, deep and angry, and Clarke takes a step forward despite Bellamy's threatening stance. 

 

"He's not the enemy Bellamy, they don't have to be." Clarke states firmly. "Lincoln said he'd talk to the commander, that we can come to some kind of truce." 

 

"So he lied about not being able to understand us?" Bellamy asks. "What's stopping him from lying about anything else?" Clarke goes to reply, her mouth opens, but Bellamy cuts her off just as quickly as he had finished talking. "We can't  _ trust  _ these people Clarke! They speared Jasper in the chest, strung him up like savages, they sent people to  _ spy  _ on us!"'Bellamy seethes. "How could you be so stupid?" He asks. 

 

"You need to calm down Bellamy." Clarke says. "We have weapons, we’re not defenseless, and I do trust Lincoln, I think we could make a real difference." 

 

"You don't get to lecture me on not trusting the right people." Bellamy growls and Clarke freezes, the words causing her to give pause, the veracity behind Bellamy's words gives her pause. "Wells, you remember him?" Bellamy asks accusingly. "Your childhood friend who would do anything for you no matter what? You remember him? Who you won't even look at because he  _ killed  _ your father?" Clarke can't breathe, the room feels like all oxygen has been sucked right out of it and she can't breathe anymore. "He didn't kill him and I think you know that deep down." Bellamy yells. Clarke's pretty sure the entire camp can hear them now, and she's not sure what to think of what Bellamy is saying, she feels dizzy, and dazed, like she's here but she's not. 

 

"Your  _ own mother  _ killed your father, and I think you already knew that, I think you just decided to blame him because you didn't  _ want  _ to believe she could do that,  _ but she did _ . Your mother killed your father,  _ not  _ Wells, so don't tell me who we  _ can  _ and  _ can't  _ trust when you trust your own murdering mother more than you trust your friend who's always been there for you." The words slap Clarke across the face and knock the remaining oxygen right out of her. Her vision blurs for a moment and, when it refocuses, she can see nothing but utter remorse and guilt written across Bellamy's face. 

 

He takes a step forward, reaching for Clarke, but the blonde stumbles backwards away from him. Bellamy was right, Clarke had always had a suspicion that it had been her mother, but she hadn't wanted to believe it, she'd  _ refused  _ to believe it, Wells was just the easiest person to hate, the easier person to blame, and, maybe, she hadn't been fair jumping to conclusions like that but she was hurt, and she'd lost her father, she didn't want to lose her mom too. 

 

"You're right," Clarke breathes again, her voice coming out surprisingly steady, though every syllable pains Clarke. "maybe I was blinded by my love for my mother to accuse her of killing my dad, and maybe I put my trust in the wrong person because it hurt less, but this is  _ nothing  _ like that." Clarke says raising her chin slightly to meet Bellamy's eyes with her brining blue orbs. "That was about me, this is about my people and keeping them safe, we need Lincoln to contact the commander, and, as it stands, we need the Ark, until otherwise, I'll help Raven with building a damn radio and I'll release a hundred tortured grounders until we have that peace, do you understand?" Clarke's voice raises towards the end of her sentence, growing with force and anger and hurt, and all Bellamy can do is nod like a scolded child at Clarke's tone. "Good." Clarke turns on her heel and comes face to face with Wells. She looks at him for a moment, her heart lurching with guilt and sorrow, before she shakes her head and pushes past him and back down the hatch leaving Wells with Bellamy. 

 

Clarke sits down in front of Monty and offers her wrist to the boy. "Take it off." Clarke instructs and she hates the way Raven and Monty look at each other first, with worried glances about Clarke, and the blonde resists the urge to growl at them. "Come on, you need to remove a bracelet successfully, take mine." Clarke thrusts her wrist towards Monty more forcefully and he spurs into action, beginning to remove the bracelet carefully, and Clarke sits in silence, wallowing in sorrow and pain all on her own. She was doing the right thing, she  _ did  _ the right thing. The fact that her mom would think she was dead was only a bonus.

 

**//**

A whole day pasts and no one says anything about the incident that occurred between Clarke and Bellamy. Everyone gives Clarke distance, she hasn't spoken to anyone other than Monty to ask how the radio is coming along which, apparently, Clarke's wristband was the only successfully removed wristband out of the batch that Monty had attempted to remove, but excuse Clarke if she wasn't leaping for joy. The wall had been successfully constructed and inside the walls the delinquents had built a small army of tents and a few trusted people had been given a gun to protect the camp. 

 

Clarke was sitting outside the wall, in the dark, in the forest, all alone, she'd been wallowing for just over a whole day now and she felt absolutely pathetic and stupid - she defiantly felt stupid. She didn't understand how she could be so blind and cruel all at the same time. She blamed Wells based on the fact that she'd told him about her father and then the next day he was floated.  _ What kind of proof was that? _ She shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. 

 

Someone slips beside Clarke and sits down beside her, they remain silent as Clarke stares up at the sky in silence. "I'm sorry Clarke." It's Bellamy and, to his credit, he does sound genuinely apologetic. "I shouldn't have said what I did." His voice is gruff and deep, just the way Clarke remembers it to be, and he's speaking slowly and softly to emphasise how sorry he is, and Clarke appreciates it, she does, but she just can't stop her wallowing. She's been running her thumb over the picture of Lexa for hours that she'd be surprised if the picture wasn't worn down by now. 

 

"My dad is dead and it's my mom's fault." Clarke states flatly, emotionless, her hand tightens around the picture in her palm. "My best friend is dead." Clarke's voice cracks and her vision blurs at the sudden rush of tears that erupt into her eyes, filling them up to the brim and spilling over. "Everything is so fucked up." Clarke buries her face into her hands and lets her tears fall, she hunches over and lets the sobs wrack her body, she feels Bellamy place a comforting hand on her back and Clarke screws her eyes closed, not wanting to take comfort from his touch. 

 

"It's okay Clarke," Bellamy whispers. "It's okay to be angry, it's okay to be upset, sad, _ it's okay _ ." He says and Clarke wipes her face, willing herself to stop the tears, but the picture of Lexa and herself sits heavy in her pocket, like an anvil that weighs her down, and she can't ignore the throbbing she feels in her heart at the loss of her best friend because Clarke loved Lexa... she  _ loves  _ her. "You were right to release Lincoln, I'm sorry about what I did, I was just angry, protective," Bellamy admits and Clarke appreciates his honesty - at least he admits to his mistakes. "I wasn't thinking." 

 

"It's okay." Clarke replies. "I forgive you." She hears Bellamy take a deep sigh at that and he shuffles closer to her to lay a comforting hand on her knee. 

 

"Wells will forgive you too." Bellamy says. "Actually, I'm not even sure he needs time to forgive you, he's still the perfect little loyal dog to you." 

 

"You like him." Clarke realises and Bellamy becomes flustered, moving his eyes from Clarke, and he runs his free hand through his brown curls. 

 

"He's okay." Bellamy says reluctantly. "I mean, he’s resourceful." 

 

"That's not what I meant." Clarke says with a smile threatening to break out onto her lips and she can't help it, even given how shit she feels, Bellamy has made her feel a little better about the whole thing, even with such little words. He nudges her with his shoulder playfully and the smallest of laughs scrapes it's way out of Clarke's throat and into the air but it's so quiet Clarke's sure Bellamy misses it. 

 

"Shut up princess." Bellamy says, his voice layered with fondness and amusement. "We should go back to camp, you need to rest, it's been awhile since I've seen you sleep... or eat." He says and Clarke scoffs. 

 

"Well aren't you the perfect mom friend?" Clarke asks dryly and Bellamy chuckles. 

 

"We're friends?" He asks, with a little surprise, and Clarke shrugs. Bellamy nods his head and stands, he offers his hand to Clarke who takes it reluctantly, he pulls the blonde to her feet and she grabs the boy and pulls him in for a hug. She hooks her chin over his shoulder and holds onto him like a lifeline, just for a moment, she allows herself this weakness, feeling her vulnerability seep in, she holds onto Bellamy because she needs someone right now and Bellamy isn't a bad guy, despite his obvious rough edges and his quick to anger attitude, he gets Clarke and that's all that Clarke needs. 

 

Bellamy wraps his arms around Clarke and just holds her for as long as she needs until he gently coaxes her back to the camp. As the pair are walking towards the dropship Clarke spots Wells standing at the door with a small reassuring smile, she smiles back at him, ready to go make things right, when a yell erupts through the camp. 

 

" _ Grounders _ !" 

 

Clarke and Bellamy both turn on the spot, whipping around to see balls of fire in the distance, one ahead of the all the others. People begin screaming and panicking as someone bursts into the gates on top of a creature that Clarke had only had the pleasure of seeing in a book. “Oh my God,” She says in amazement. “horses.” Clarke's eyes bug out of her head at the sight of the beautiful horse that makes an angry snorting noise as the woman stop it and drops to the floor. 

 

"The commander seeks  _ Klark kom Skaikru's _ audience." The woman's voice is low and firm and the surrounding delinquents begin murmuring in their panic, some holding their guns tighter. Bellamy grabs his own gun, from a nearby guard, and Clarke takes a step forward. 

 

"And I seek her's." Clarke states, she feels Bellamy step forward behind her, close to her back, his presence protective, and Clarke knows that he's probably holding the weapon tightly to his chest in preparation for a fight. The woman eyes Clarke wearily, almost distastefully, before the distant fireballs become clearer and there's a beautiful black steed that bursts in first, a long, slim, powerful, figure sitting atop it. Clarke couldn't make out her face, thanks to the dark of the night and the dark around her eyes, but it was clear that this woman was the commander. 

 

She slips off her horse with ease, patting it gently on its neck as the other grounders flood into the camp, sparking more nervous energy from the surrounding delinquents, Clarke stares at the woman, unable to take her eyes off of her, as she turns to face Clarke. Clarke squints in the dark before the woman takes a step forward and her face is lit by the orange glow of fire, lighting up her face enough for Clarke to recognise her, for that one face to stop all air going into Clarke's lung, her eyes widen almost comically and she almost doubles over in surprise. 

 

Clarke was unmoving, staring at her best friend who looked completely different. She stood with authority, authority that she had never had on the Ark but still somehow possessed, her long coat rippled when a breeze hit her, her green eyes were bright and almost smouldering and popped in colour even more thanks to the black warpaint she had smeared over her eyes, she stood impossibly tall and rigid, a sword at her hip, she was even more beautiful than what she had been on the Ark, her jaw was shaper, she was slimmer and had grown up to become a beautifully terrifying woman. 

 

Clarke gapes at her, completely shocked and unable to comprehend how this person in front of her was both her best friend and not her best friend. Her fellow Arkers didn't recognise her, which didn't surprise her, Lexa was barely noticeable on the Ark, but on the ground, no one could look away. There was a flicker of recognition on Bellamy's face and Raven’s who had gone just as still as Clarke. Clarke's chest was rising and falling with great speed, she felt like she was going to pass out from shock. 

 

Then, Lexa reaches into her sleeve, her intense green eyes never leaving the blonde. Nearby Arkers raise their weapons but Lexa doesn't show any expression of being afraid, in fact, she doesn't look like she has any kind of emotion, she's so stoic, and Clarke doesn't understand what had happened to her best friend while she had been on the ground... or why she was  _ on  _ the ground. 

 

There's a flash of something silver, and her hand is wrapped firmly around the shaft of something, but it's far too skinny to be a blade, not that that mattered to the sky people. Clarke's close enough that, if Lexa was pulling out a weapon, she could be dead in seconds, but Lexa wouldn't hurt Clarke, she would never hurt Clarke, no matter what she'd been through. 

 

Lexa holds up a very thin object wedged between her thumb and index finger and it takes Clarke a moment to realise that she was holding a pencil up. She stares at Lexa, dumbfounded, and, slowly, that emotionless mask gives way to a ghost of a smile that makes its way to the brunette’s face. "Do you still like to draw Clarke?" She asks and Clarke had no idea she'd been craving that voice for two whole years, it was smoother, and more velvety, than she remembered it, but it still gave Clarke the same comfort it always had. 

 

She hands Clarke the pencil and the surrounding Arkers all stare in confusion and disbelief. The grounders, however, stay still, like statues, and Clarke remembers that the woman had announced the arrival of the commander.  _ Lexa was their commander? What the hell had happened? _

 

Clarke pushes all that aside for a moment, her eyes lifting up from the pencil to gaze at the intimidating brunette in front of her. "I missed you." The words slip from Clarke's lips without her really knowing what she's saying. There's a twinge of emotion in Lexa's eyes as she registers Clarke's words but, mostly, she remains terse and calm. 

 

" _ Seintaim _ ." She replies.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Skaikru - Sky People  
> Heda - Commander  
> Trikru - Tree People (Tree Clan)  
> Jus drein jus daun - Blood must have blood  
> Veida - Invaders  
> Fayogons - (Fire)guns  
> Klark Kom Sakikru - Clarke of the Sky People  
> Seintaim - Same, same as, also, too (me too)
> 
> Yes, so chapter three is the juicy clexa part and we learn a little more about what Lexa's been through on the ground and what the hell happened to her and why she hates Jaha, etc, etc. Anyway, drop me a line and I'll see y'all asap :)!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's beautiful." Clarke whispers. Lexa looks down and focuses on Clarke, her eyes slowly drifting up and down her face, taking in all the familiarity and beauty that was Clarke Griffin. 
> 
> "Yeah." Lexa says a little breathlessly. "It is." 
> 
> Or, Lexa and Clarke finally meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told y'all that the next update would be quick - it's been 4 days, maybe a little less? Anyway, it's here for you and I hope you enjoy! I can't tell you how many times I listened to Neptune by Sleeping at Last while writing this and this chapter is totally inspired by it - I recommend listening to it if you haven't! This chapter is quite long too, like chapter 2, and I haven't started 4 yet but I imagine it'll be long too but we'll see. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now and let you read ;)

**I'm only honest when it rains.**  
**If I time it right, the thunder breaks**  
 **When I open my mouth.**  
 **I want to tell you but I don't know how.**

**\- Sleeping At Least, Neptune**

* * *

 

Clarke didn't know what that one word meant, she didn't know if Lexa had just insulted her, or possibly said the sweetest one worded sentence in the history of sentences, but hearing Lexa speak the language that the grounders spoke causes a shiver to run down Clarke’s spine and her heart to warm anyway. A woman steps forward, so she's just barely behind Lexa, almost level with the brunette's taut shoulders. Lexa turns her head ever so slightly as though the sound of the woman's movements had been as clear as day, or maybe Lexa just sensed her, but Clarke hadn't heard a single noise. " _Heda_ ." The woman mutters and Clarke's head cocks to the side. " _Dula op yu get klin chon bilaik gada ste_?" Lexa's eyes drift to Clarke before they snap back to the side while she turns her head to look at the woman better.

 

" _Skai raunon_ ." Lexa replies. " _Ai laik Skai raunon_." The woman grunts, clearly, whatever Lexa had said she didn't agree with.

 

" _No, yu laik Heda, kom Trikru._ " She almost growls with her intense brown eyes glaring into Clarke's very soul it felt like.

 

" _Chil yu au, Indra._ " Lexa asserts. " _Em ste no jomp op kom ai._ " She gives the woman, Indra, one last look and the woman retreats back, standing impossibly rigid like the other grounders. " _Klark kom Skaikru_ ," Lexa addresses her sentence to Clarke and the blonde's attention is immediately earned. She didn't know if Lexa had always been this good looking, or if it was her exceptional tanned skin, clearly toned muscles, and her new dominating, intimidating personality, but it was really working for her and Clarke was beginning to think that _maybe_ she'd always felt something for her best friend a little beyond just friendship.

 

"Is there somewhere we can talk?" Lexa asks, raising an eyebrow at Clarke's roaming eyes. Clarke blushes at the fact that she had been caught and she was still whirling from the fact that Lexa was both a stranger and familiar at the same time.

 

"The dropship?" Clarke's tone sounds unsure but, really, that was the only place that they could truly talk alone. She sees the woman, Indra, twitch slightly, as though the idea of leaving Clarke alone with Lexa didn't sit well with her, but, for some reason, Clarke got the impression that, should Lexa want to, she could disarm Clarke’s attempts to harm her in three seconds flat. Lexa nods her head, mutters a few more words in that peculiar language, before she focuses back on Clarke to lead the way.

 

The surrounding Arkers part like the red sea, watching as Lexa followed after Clarke while moving with grace and authority, more people were recognising Lexa as the young mechanic engineer, or maybe from her short duty on the guard, but they knew that Lexa wasn't a grounder... _or was she?_

 

They enter the dropship and Lexa steps past Clarke, examining the familiar hollow metal frame that the ark had adorned and Clarke closes the door by lifting the lever at the side of the it. Clarke remains silent, watching as Lexa's hands were folded behind her back, pressing against the base of her spine in a way that made her presence threatening and commanding. "Lexa-" Clarke begins but the brunette turns to face her and Clarke's words fail her.

 

It was subtle and, had Clarke not been Lexa's best friend, she probably wouldn't have noticed it but she saw it: the flames of anger licking at Lexa’s green eyes, turning the smouldering green into a burning fire of silent rage. "W-what happened?" Clarke asks. She didn't know what she was specifically asking about, what had happened on the ground, or what had happened on the ark, both she supposed, but Lexa decided to answer the latter one.

 

"Jaha happened," Lexa retorts with her voice dripping with venom and hatred. "he said that he was sending the hundred prisoners to the ground, you included, said he'd need someone to gather intel for when you arrived because they needed to know if the ground was survivable." Clarke nods her head and Lexa turns to face her fully.

 

"Only he didn't expect me to live, he sent me down here to die, the dropship he sent me in wasn't fit enough for entering the earth’s atmosphere, it almost burnt up, I was an engineer, I know when things aren't working how they were supposed to, he was expecting me to die in the drop." The anger in Lexa's voice was foreign to Clarke, the brunette always remained placid and calm on the Ark, it was rare she got angry, the only time Clarke had seen Lexa truly angry was when she was defending Clarke - like when she had been getting dragged away. "I was injured couldn't leave the drop ship until someone found me and nursed me back to health." Lexa says. "Then I discovered that Jaha hadn't sent me down with any form of communication, or _anything_ , he simply wanted me dead, he always has."

 

"I don't understand," Clarke interjects. "why did he even send you in the first place? He could’ve killed you on the Ark?" Lexa's jaw clenches, only ever so slightly, but it's noticeable if you look close enough, and Clarke had been studying Lexa's form for a while now.

 

"Because Clarke," The way that Lexa said Clarke's name was aggressive while also being gentle. "I was a problem, but I was also from the lower class, kill me, he could've had a riot on his hand, without evidence of what really happened to me, no case for a riot." Lexa shakes her head.

 

"The ground was not kind to me." She begins. "The man who nursed me back to health was Lincoln," Clarke's eyes widen marginally and Lexa smiles sadly at her for a second - clearly, Lincoln had caught up with his commander afterall. "he helped me and took me back to his village. Only no one at the village wanted me there so I starved, and I became weak, Lincoln tried to help me as much as he could but, there was only so much you can steal without it becoming noticeable. That was, until someone else decided to take pity on me." Lexa's expression softens noticeably, her bones relax, becoming less rigid and tight, and Clarke feels an unusual spike of jealousy in her gut. "Her name was Anya, she made me her second, trained me to fight, trained me to hunt, to _survive_ , I was by her side wherever she went." Lexa explains.

 

"You pick things up, living in the village, whispered ghost stories of the Mountain Men, but I never really _knew_ until Anya took me to one of the war council meetings. Trikru was the closest territory to the mountain, they abducted warriors, put monsters in the mines called reapers and they were the first people who really inspired fear among the grounders." Clarke figured these so called ‘Mountain Men’ must have been pretty damn scary because nothing looked like it could scare the grounders. "Anya she..." Lexa's fists clench and she drops her head subtly, closing her eyes tightly. "She died honourably in the battle against the mountain." Lexa finishes and Clarke wonders if maybe Anya had been something more to Lexa, other than her mentor, but didn't feel like breaching that topic anytime soon.

 

"After that, I stepped up, used my extended amount of knowledge of technology and brought down the mountain." Lexa straightens, regaining her calm composure she seemed to have mastered. "The Mountain Men's technology confused them but, I understood, I was different, and the mountain fell." Lexa's eyes were cold of unspoken tragedy and horror and Clarke swallows nervously at the void look in her green eyes. "I was accepted, finally, eventually I became their _Heda_ , commander," Lexa translates. "and then I forged an alliance between the twelve nations." Lexa smoothes out an non-existent crease on her jacket.

 

"I am the commander of the twelve clans, mountain slayer, _Skai raunon_ , _Trikru_ , and it is impossible for me to ignore this new threat." Clarke feels a chill run down her spine as her eyes focus on Clarke again. Lexa was threatening, yes, thanks to her armour, the shoulder piece that had a red sash pulled through, the war paint smeared black against her face and the weapons strapped to her, but it was her body language, the way she held herself, that told Clarke that Lexa could really inflict some damage should she need, or want, to. "I do not wish to hurt you Clarke but I have to protect my people."

 

" _We are your people_." Clarke points, out taking a step towards the brunette. Lexa tenses, visibly, and Clarke finds herself stepping back again, the commander shakes her head at the blonde.

 

"Not anymore, I stopped being one of the Sky People when I was sent down here to die." Lexa replies.

 

"We were sent down here to die too." Clarke says, her eyes pleading. A moment stretches of silence as the two stare at each other, coming to an impasse, when there's a knock on the door - there was no way to open the outside door unless you were inside the ship.

 

Lexa turns her head slightly to the side and Clarke glances over at the metal door. "Clarke?" Bellamy's gruff voice sounds from outside the door, muffled. "Are you okay?" He asks. Clarke looks at Lexa, silently asking for her permission, and the brunette nods her head. Clarke moves to open the door and moves back across the room.

 

Bellamy enters, pausing momentarily at the poise brunette who stood with her hands folded behind her back and her chin sharp and high. He closes the door again by pulling the lever and looks at Clarke to explain the situation. "So..." He trails off for a second, feeling a little awkward. "Truce?" He asks. Lexa resists the urge to roll her eyes and keeps up her hard persona, narrowing her eyes at the shaggy haired boy.

 

"No, no truce." Lexa says calmly and Clarke flinches ever so slightly in the corner of Lexa's vision. "Your people attacked my people, unprovoked, you tortured one of my people and burned a village that had women and children in it, you've caused more destruction on the ground than that of the Mountain men and your presence in my lands will not be tolerated." Lexa's tone was harsh and cold and each word felt like a stab to the heart. Bellamy, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as affected by Lexa's hostility.

 

"You speared Jasper in the chest." He protests, clenching his fists and raising his voice slightly. Lexa was almost disappointed that Bellamy clearly couldn't control his anger, which led to rash decisions. "You've been terrorising _us_ since we landed, we didn't know there was even anyone alive down here, you can't blame us for that stuff."

 

"Actually," Lexa stares at him. "I can." Clarke draws in a sharp breath. "Jasper was an accident, my warriors panicked, understandably, they attacked but he survived."

 

"You strung him up to a tree." Bellamy retorts.

 

"He survived and he's stronger for it." Lexa says, looking a little bored at the accusation. "I did not receive word about the encounter until much later, _after_ you burnt a village to the ground, and for what end?" Lexa asks. "Even after you knew that people clearly survived on earth, you still attacked us." Bellamy's jaw clenches showing his frustration. Clarke couldn't exactly argue because she was still reeling from the fact that this person in front of her was _Lexa_ and, technically, the flares weren’t an attack, they were a signal to the Ark, and Clarke was pretty sure Lexa knew that, but she was acting like they had purposely attacked, which they _hadn’t_ , it was an accident, and the grounders had hardly been warm and welcoming of their presence, but, for some unknown reason, Clarke couldn’t find her voice to protest.

 

"That's not fair." Bellamy says before lifting his rifle up to point at Lexa. Lexa tilts her head to the side, seemingly unaffected by Bellamy's threat, it was a little unnerving, the fact that Lexa was so calm in the face of possible death, but, maybe, she was used to it. "How about we keep her here as a prisoner and negotiate something with the grounders?" Bellamy directs the question to Clarke who was frozen.

 

"Please, my people would never be so stupid as to risk one life for the many, even if I am their commander." Lexa sounded so sure and, honestly, it did sound like something that the grounders would do: sacrifice the few for the many.

 

"Then we kill you and use you as an example." He suggests. Lexa scoffs, the first human sound other than her calm collected voice that Clarke had heard the commander do, and rolls her eyes.

 

"Please, if you even tried, you'd be dead in seconds." Lexa words weren't threatening, they didn't have to be, she was simply telling the truth, which frightened Clarke more.

 

"Lex," Clarke's voice causes the commander to pause, her hand twitches away from where it had fell instinctively by her side, ready to draw her blade should she need to, her eyes soften at hearing the nickname, memories of following Clarke into air ducts on the Ark, sharing rations and spending almost all her time with the blonde, flashing in a blur past her eyes. Clarke feels it too, she sees it too, and there's something that tells her that they haven't lost their connection - simply forgotten what they had once had.

 

"You want something in return for what you’ve lost." Clarke realises and Lexa's eyebrows knit together, forgetting about the boy pointing a gun at her. "You need resources and engineers and you know half the people on the Ark were just that. Raven, Raven’s the best mechanic ever, you know that, we can help build structures, share technology, you were an engineer but you don't know everything." Clarke points out. "And then there's me, we have medicine sent down with us in case we needed them, and my medical knowledge can be taught to your healers, and- and we have our own warriors, people like Bellamy and Monroe, Harper, Miller, _Octavia,_ we can help each other." Clarke sounded almost excited, as though that solution sounded great, like she hadn't just suggested that the grounders and sky people build a society together and the two blend together.

 

Lexa's brow creases in contemplation, she knew Clarke was right -she always was - despite what had happened, the Arkers did offer things that had just been out of the grounders reach, but Lexa wasn't sure, nothing was guaranteed. "And what of when the rest of the Ark follows?" Lexa asks and Clarke falters. "Will they accept my ruling? Accept that the chancellor doesn't control me or my people."

 

" _Our_ people." Clarke scowls. "If we're to integrate properly then there can't be sky people or grounders, it can't be _your_ people and _my_ people, it's _our_ people." Lexa can feel her mouth twitch up at Clarke's words - she was optimistic as ever. "And, if the people upstairs," that does make Lexa smile, and Clarke feels a certain pride at the action, no matter how fleeting it is. "don't obey when they finally do come down, then they'll have to be dealt with, but, right here, right now, it’s just the hundred, and we're offering this." Clarke's voice was firm, and she too straightened her frame and held her chin high like Lexa, a natural born leader.

 

Lexa removes her hand from her waist, bringing it up to rest on her face, as she thought about Clarke's suggestion. Bellamy lowers his gun as the commander paces for a moment, it wasn't nervous pacing, as one might do, it was purposeful and controlled, calculating, strategic, as the commander simply thought out the options laid in front of her. She could kill the sky people, even if they did have guns, they were severely outnumbered, but she didn't _want_ to kill them, she didn't want to harm Clarke, her protective nature still rang true, she'd still do anything for Clarke and her desire to choose heart over her head was almost suffocating.

 

She rubs her chin in contemplation, thinking about how her people would react, it would be hard at first but Clarke was right, they would certainly benefit from the sky people's technology, brains and man power. She examines Bellamy for a moment, it was true, although she hated to admit it, but Bellamy was strong, a natural born leader and warrior, and she was sure there was probably more just like him, and Clarke, well, Clarke was just amazing in everything she set her mind to.

 

Lexa sighs and Clarke looks at her curiously, awaiting her response with tense muscles. Clarke was sure that, had Bellamy attempted to kidnap the commander, then, even if the door couldn't be opened from the outside, she was certain there wouldn't have been anything stopping the army of grounders outside from tearing the dropship apart, panel by panel, in order to reach their precious commander. In end though, this was Lexa and, as much as she had changed, something still rang true and that was that Lexa was smart, she was probably the smartest person Clarke knew, and solid logic outweighed any other idea she may have.

 

Lexa's pacing halts and her eyes flit over to Clarke curiously before she nods her head. "Very well." Lexa says. "You inhabit the land inside of Trikru territory, which I will grant to you, I can make you the thirteenth clan with promise of trade and knowledge to the other nations to make them see reason, but you burned down a village." Lexa says calmly. "You must rebuild it at once, offer your supplies and manpower, whatever, to help those who you have taken from." Clarke nods her head understandably and Lexa clasps her hands behind her back again.

 

"My people will not be happy at first, this integration will take time, and may cause some unpleasant surprises, but you are right Clarke," Lexa looks at her directly. "we need each other." Clarke nods her head, with a small smile, and the brunette returns it with a very, _very_ , small one of her own. "We'll need an ambassador, someone who can speak for your people."

 

"I'll do it." Clarke volunteers immediately and Lexa looks at her sideways, Bellamy stares at the blonde in disbelief - up until now, they had been in a joint leadership - and Lexa nods her head.

 

"I will need you to accompany me to TonDC," Lexa informs her. "many people took refuge there after the fire," She explains. "you can bring a small party," Lexa eyes glance towards Bellamy. "but not too many people, I do not wish to agitate the people of TonDC with the presence of _Skaikru_ , or cause tensions to rise between our people so soon." Clarke doesn't miss how Lexa referred to them as _our_ people and so soon, she got it, Lexa actually understood.

 

"Of course." Clarke responds. "When do we leave?" She asks and Lexa pauses, thinking for a moment.

 

"Tomorrow, at first light."

 

**//**

It was early, super early, and Clarke was pretty sure even the birds weren't awake yet - though that might just be her grumpy teenager side kicking in. Clarke steps out of the dropship with her backpack slung over one shoulder and Bellamy had given her his handgun, which now sat at Clarke's hip, while he opted for the larger machine gun rather than the smaller gun. She's greeted by a bright white sky of cloud, that causes it to be colder than usual and makes the surroundings look grey and gloomy - it was definitely going to rain soon.

 

Clarke steps off of the metal door to the dropship and joins her small party of delinquents that would be accompanying her on her journey. Clarke had chosen Raven, Bellamy, Wells and Murphy to come along with her, Raven because she was smart, and could show off her mechanical skills, Bellamy because, well, he's _Bellamy_ , and Clarke trusts him to look out for her, Wells because Clarke still hadn't talked to him, and she can see that Bellamy wanted the boy to tag along, even if he did deny it, and Murphy was a kind of necessary evil but Lexa was well accustomed to Murphy's unique charm anyway.

 

The group look at Clarke expectantly and Clarke sighs, running a hand through her blonde curls. "What's going on?" Raven asks. "Bellamy said something about a truce, or an alliance, but when I look at them, I get the sense that they want to gut me like a fish." Raven says and Clarke smiles slightly at her analogy. She glances over at the assembled group of grounders, Lexa stood by the black steed she had ridden in on the previous night, she was braiding its mane and something about that action was so incredibly innocent that Clarke almost lets a sigh escape her lips.

 

She'd thought her best friend was dead but here she was, alive and well, and she was freaking braiding a horse's mane, the simple action told Clarke that maybe Lexa, _the old Lexa_ , was still in there. "We're going to TonDC to offer our condolences and our supplies," Clarke explains. "after that, I'm not sure, but Lexa probably has something in mind."

 

"Speaking of which," Raven says, staring at Clarke like she'd just skimmed over the biggest piece of information ever. "what the hell is Lexa doing on the ground, and why does she look ten times hotter on the ground than she did on the Ark?" Raven asks and Clarke rolls her eyes. She was tempted to hit Raven on the back of the head but she refrains from doing so - mainly because they were all valid questions, and Clarke was kind of wondering about that last one too.

 

"It's a long story," Clarke says dismissively. "I'm sure she'll tell you eventually." Clarke replies eyeing the grounders once again. They all looked like the uniquest people Clarke had ever seen, their clothes, especially, were the most peculiar thing, most of them were ragged, dirty and faded, except for Lexa, who looked clean and pristine, polished, and every braid was placed perfectly on her head - the perks of being the commander, Clarke supposed.

 

"I don't like this Clarke." Bellamy mutters quietly. "I know Lexa was your best friend on the Ark but she could be a totally different person now, actually, she _is_ a totally different person, look at her." Clarke looks over to Lexa, obviously the girl had changed, she was standing next to her horse, hand resting on her sword, the other one hanging by her side, she was all stiff and tense and she held herself completely different, but Lexa was still familiar, she still had her beautiful green eyes, her curly brown hair and, even if Clarke hadn't been that close to Lexa yet, she knew that she'd still have that same warmth to her.

 

Clarke turns back to Bellamy and shakes her head. "She's not that different." Clarke says and Bellamy narrows his eyes. "I trust her Bellamy, she's my best friend."

 

"I'm just worried your feelings for the mighty commander might be blinding you from seeing her for who she really is." Bellamy retorts and Clarke frowns at him, taking a subtle step closer to try and intimidate him.

 

"My _feelings_?" Clarke asks, raising an eyebrow, Clarke got the impression that Bellamy was implying something and, whatever it was, Clarke didn't like it, it made her heart pick up in pace, and she could feel her defensive side kicking in.

 

Before the pair can get too into their little argument, Raven steps forward and places her hand on either of their chests, effectively keeping them apart. "Okay, let's all just take a deep breath and try to not attack each other." Raven says, looking between the blonde and curly haired boy. "I knew Lexa before too, people change Bellamy, you can't just write Lexa off before we even get to know her... _again_." Raven frowns to herself before dropping her hands and shrugging her shoulders. "She's still one of us after all." Raven reasons and Bellamy shakes his head.

 

"No, she's one of _them_." He states and no one could really argue with that because he was right; Lexa was more grounder than she was a sky person.

 

"Well _they,_ are now _us_ , so get your head out of your a-"

 

" _Okay_!" Wells interrupts this time and Bellamy takes a step back from the blonde at the sound of his interruption. "So we go to TonDC, we do what's needed, and then we come home, and we'll see what happens. What's the alternative?" Wells asks looking at Bellamy. Bellamy holds his gaze for a moment, searching for something, before he shakes his head and redirects his eyes.

 

"The alternative is that they attack us and wipe us all out." Bellamy answers grimly and Wells nods his head.

 

"Right, so we should take what we have." Wells says and Bellamy reluctantly nods. "Monty is working on the radio, and Bellamy's put people he trusts in charge, everything should be okay while we're gone, we just have to play this out." Wells says looking around the circle. They all nod their heads in agreement, glancing between themselves.

 

"So are we done with our little domestic dispute?" Murphy asks sarcastically and the other teens all turn and look at him with a deadly glare which prompts the boy to roll his eyes and hold his hands up in mock surrender.

 

"Let's move out." Bellamy grumbles but, before they can even begin to do so, the sound of someone shouting catches their attention.

 

" _Hey_!"

 

The teens whip around to see Octavia storming towards them, backpack slung over her shoulder. "Were you really going to leave me behind?" Octavia directs her question to Bellamy, anger clear in her tone.

 

"It's not safe O." Bellamy says, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her beside him so that he could lower his voice, he glances over at the group of grounders, who were giving them curious looks now thanks to Octavia's outburst, before he turns back to his little sister.

 

"You don't get to tell me what to do Bellamy." Octavia says, yanking her arm out of Bellamy's grip, quite violently, Bellamy glares at her in disapproval and Octavia holds his glare with a one of her own - they were siblings, and thus, equally as stubborn and equally as protective. "I can handle myself."

 

"We don't know where we're going, or if they'll even be accepting of us, we could be attacked." Bellamy retorts, scowling at his sister.

 

"You're going to TonDC," Octavia states. "that's Indra's village and it's where Lincoln is."

 

"How do you even know that?" Bellamy asks in exasperation.

 

"Well, before you decided to torture him," Octavia fumes and Bellamy looks over his shoulder momentarily. "I actually _talked_ to him." Granted, it probably wouldn't have been that long, but clearly it was long enough for Octavia to get some sort of information from him. "Now, you're taking me, and I won't take no for an answer." Octavia states before she struts off towards the assembled grounders.

 

Bellamy watches after his sister with a slack jaw and Clarke feels for Bellamy, she really does, because all Bellamy wants to do is right by his people, and right by his sister, and Clarke knows they're kind of in an impossible situation right now that the boy is probably just trying to make the most of the situation in anyway he can. "Great, little Blake is coming along too." Murphy says, sounding anything but enthusiastic, he slips past Bellamy and Clarke and heads towards the grounders where Octavia had left to go to.

 

Bellamy watches after him before he turns to Clarke and extends his hand out to her. "Give me your pack princess." Bellamy says, making a grabbing gesture, and Clarke frowns at him, fiddling with the strap on her shoulder.

 

"What? Why?" Clarke asks in confusion and Bellamy sighs.

 

"Because we have a long walk, I'm assuming you don't want to be carrying that pack all the way, and Lexa keeps looking at you like she has some kind of plan ,so," Bellamy sighs and shakes his hand again. "give me your pack." He repeats and Clarke reluctantly does so. Wells smiles and shakes his head, as he walks with Bellamy towards the group, leaving Clarke and Raven.

 

"You're such a gentleman." Clarke hears Wells tease and the blonde smirks to herself.

 

"Shut up charming." Bellamy grumbles back and Clarke chuckles, turning to face Raven with a raised brow.

 

They begin walking towards the grounders themselves, lowering their voice so that they can talk between themselves. "Bellamy's right you know." Raven says quietly. Clarke turns to look at the brunette and gives her a look. "Hey, I never said that what he said about Lexa _is_ right," Raven says lifting her hands up. "I just mean, he's right about the fact that it's been _two_ years, she's been down here, and we've seen what the grounders do, Lexa has a freaking sword strapped to her hip, all I'm saying is, we don't know what's happened to her, so we should be careful."

 

"I know." Clarke replies reluctantly, she didn't want to believe that Lexa had changed _that_ much, but it was a possibility, only a few hours ago she was making threats about having to handle the new threat that the delinquents were, and God know what she meant when she said that but wiping them out sounded like a real possibility. "She's still Lexa though," Clarke says, looking at the girl that they were quickly approaching. "I still... she's still my best friend." Clarke whispers, though it's mostly to herself because she has a weird feeling in her chest, and in the pit of her stomach, when she looks at Lexa, and she's both familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time, and it's confusing, but Clarke kind of loves the way it makes her feel.

 

"Yeah," Raven says with a nod. "I bet the old Lexa is still in there and, if there's anyone who can reach her, it's you." Raven looks at the front of the pack to see Murphy talking to a grounder and the girl lets out an aggravated sigh. "I'll be on Murphy watch," she says, causing Clarke to chuckle. "don't want him pissing any of the grounders off." She hurries to go catch up with the boy and brushes past Octavia, who was standing beside Indra, talking to her about something - how Octavia had the courage to talk to the terrifying woman, was completely beyond Clarke.

 

The blonde passes a blushing Bellamy and a smiling Wells, approaching the commander with some caution, before stopping directly in front of her. Lexa gives her a once over, it’s quick, and over before it even really begins, though her eyes linger on the gun strapped to Clarke's hip, before her green gaze fixes onto Clarke's again. She was wearing her warpaint again and she looked weathered beyond her years, older than nineteen years old, which Clarke knew she was because she'd celebrated Lexa's birthday in her cell, which was only a few weeks prior to them being dropped.

 

Lexa inclines her chin and dips her head slightly in greeting and Clarke gives her a nervous smile. She shouldn't feel this awkward, this out of place, around her best friend, but she can't help it, she just doesn't know who Lexa is anymore. "Uh, hey." Clarke greets and Clarke swears she sees a ghost of a smile on Lexa's lips but it's gone before Clarke can fully make it out.

 

"You can walk, or ride with me." Lexa states it, she doesn't ask, which is weird to Clarke, it's almost as though she didn't care what Clarke chose to do, it was just her options that she had to choose from. Clarke sways on her feet, the idea of walking made her almost want to groan and her sleepless night to make her shoulders sag, but the thought of being on a horse, especially a horse that Lexa would been riding _with_ her, made her hesitate.

 

She hadn't spent time with her old friend, she wasn’t sure how much she had changed, but the thought of being pressed up against Lexa made her stomach flip and made her a little nervous. Lexa looks at her curiously, clearly awaiting a response, and Clarke looks around. Lexa already knew what Clarke wanted to say, she could read it in the blonde's tired frame at the suggestion of walking, only Clarke hadn’t answered yet.

 

"I'll ride with you." Clarke finally says and Lexa nods, gesturing for Clarke to climb on first. She pauses, looking up at the tall beast hesitantly, before glancing back at Lexa who had a look of understanding on her face.

 

"You put your foot in there," Lexa points to the stirrup. "then use your momentum to swing up into the saddle." It sounded simple enough and Clarke follows Lexa's instructions, learning something very quickly: it was harder than it sounded. The blonde falls backwards, only to be caught from falling on her ass by two strong arms on her shoulders.

 

"Sorry." She mutters, slightly flustered and embarrassed, plus, having a few grounders snicker at her, made Clarke slightly irritated.

 

"You need more momentum." Lexa comments, ignoring Clarke's apology. "Try again." She encourages. Clarke does and it's clear that, once again, she did not gather enough momentum to haul herself up, but then, there's the feeling of slender fingers on her waist, pushing her just that little bit more that she needed, and she ends up in the saddle correctly. It takes her a moment to realise that it had been Lexa who had helped her into the saddle, and her touch had been so gentle, almost invisible, which was surprising since Lexa seemed all rigid and regal now.

 

The commander hauls herself up much easily and she lands behind Clarke in the saddle, gracefully, her hands wrapping around Clarke’s sides to take hold of the reins. Clarke gulps at the feeling of Lexa pressed against her back, the saddle wasn't exactly big enough for two people, so they were confined in one space, and the brunette's warm breath brushed over Clarke's neck causing her to shiver.

 

Lexa clears her throat and Clarke wonders if the close proximity had as much of an affect on her as it did on Clarke. "I apologise," Lexa's voice was smooth and soft in her ear and Clarke relaxes instinctively. "this saddle was made for only one." Clarke shrugs and the careless action causes Lexa's stiff frame to relax, if only by a fraction, she spurs the horse into motion and Clarke tries to ignore the fact that Lexa was pressed against her and that the journey could take God knows how long.

 

**//**

After traveling for a few hours, Clarke notices that they're lagging behind a little from the rest of the group. It's not enough to be cause for concern, but it's enough that it's noticeable, and Clarke doesn't understand why Lexa would be so far behind. "We're behind." Clarke comments. It takes a moment for Lexa to respond and Clarke wonders if maybe she'd fallen asleep for a moment.

 

"We are." She confirms and Clarke frowns, turning slightly so she could see Lexa better.

 

"Why?" Clarke asks the real question she had been asking. Lexa shifts slightly and clears her throat awkwardly.

 

"We're not riding her correctly." Lexa answers, gesturing to the horse.

 

"Oh?" Clarke says, confused, she wasn't sure there was a _correct_ way to ride a horse but, then again, she'd never seen one or ridden one before now.

 

"It's okay Clarke, it's not a problem." The commander reassures but Clarke's legs are stiff, and her muscles are aching a little, so she's curious as to what she had to do to ride the horse correctly.

 

"Show me how." Clarke encourages. "What do we have to do to ride correctly?" There's another pause and Clarke's sure it's because Lexa's reluctant to talk - she always was awkward and stiff sometimes.

 

"We have to move." Lexa finally answers and Clarke raises her eyebrows. "With the horse's movements, we should move too, it makes riding smoother and easier for her." Lexa clarifies.

 

"So how do you do that?" Clarke asks. Lexa lifts her hands slightly, gesturing for Clarke to hold the reins, and she does so, there's a moment of hesitation, before hands are gripping at Clarke’s hips. Clarke begins moving, or maybe grinding is a more appropriate word, Lexa pushes her away when she's supposed to and back into her after, making sure to mirror Clarke's movements to ensure they were both moving in the same rhythm as the horse, their speed picks up immediately, the horse riding easier instantly, and Clarke's almost impressed... until she realises that she's a little too excited when she feels Lexa rub against her.

 

It's subtle, and brief, since the next moment she's away from her, but it causes Clarke to blush furiously and she almost feels like this could pass as dry humping. Lexa kicks her feet down, encouraging the horse to speed up, and, in turn, causes Clarke's and Lexa's moments to do the same. Clarke feels incredibly awkward, especially since she _likes_ the feeling she gets firm it, she should not like rubbing up against her best friend this much, but Lexa seems unaffected by it.

 

They catch up with the group easily and Lexa tells Clarke to slow the horse down which she does. As the horse slows down in pace again, Clarke manages to forget about her momentary lustful thoughts and she decides that she's sick of thinking of Lexa as a stranger. Clarke remembers the pencil that Lexa had given to her yesterday. "Do you remember on the Ark when you first gave me a pencil?" Clarke asks.

 

"That was a lifetime ago Clarke." Lexa responds but Clarke hears how her voice has softened, how she's talking more quietly, like their conversation is some big secret.

 

"That's not what I asked." Clarke chimes and she feels Lexa huff against her, a breath of annoyance escaping her lips, and she can imagine that, had she not been the big bad commander, the girl would be pouting.

 

"Yes, I remember." She answers and Clarke smiles smugly.

 

"You stole it remember?" Clarke asks and there's a small rumble against Clarke's back that she realises is Lexa chuckling, or laughing, it's short lived but it warms Clarke's heart. "Such a badass rebel Lex, stealing pencils." Lexa hums in amusement, her body not holding so much of that tension anymore, and Clarke felt like she was pressed against her old friend, if she closed her eyes, she might even be able to believe that they were back on the Ark, spending the day in Clarke's bunk like they did often.

 

"I have a question." Clarke states after a moment.

 

"You always have a question." Lexa drawls and Clarke grins - she could tell that Lexa's good natured, playful side was beginning to show.

 

"Yeah, well, I'm the studious type." Clarke retorts. "So, do you still have your six pack?"

 

"Is that the only reason you liked me?" Lexa asks playfully and Clarke's smile widens.

 

"No, you also happen to have really pretty eyes." Clarke jokes and she hears Lexa let out a breathy laugh, she was getting closer to hearing Lexa really laugh, and she didn't want to let up just yet. "Actually, I liked you because you had these really thick rimmed glasses as a five year old, before you switched them out for contacts later." Lexa grunts and Clarke smirks. "Actually, can you even see right now?"

 

"I can see perfectly fine Clarke." Clarke knows Lexa's frowning but her voice is still soft and playful.

 

"Really? _Are you sure_? How many fingers am I holding up?" Clarke lifts one of her hands from the reins and sticks up her middle finger. There's more rumbling against Clarke's back, and she knows that Lexa’s laughing harder than before, but still not openly. "I'm not sure you can steer this horse if you can't see." Clarke comments.

 

"Clarke," Clarke is stunned for a moment, at how close Lexa's voice is to her ear, but she can hear the amusement dripping from her tone. " _you're_ steering the horse." She reminds the blonde. Clarke looks down at her hands that were still holding the reins and blushes a little.

 

"Oh." _Right_ . _That wasn't embarrassing at all._

 

Lexa does laugh this time, it's quiet, and Clarke's sure she's the only one who can hear it, but she feels the brunette's body shudder against her back and that sweet sound leave her lips. "The studious type, _right_." Lexa says sarcastically, after a moment, and Clarke scowls.

 

"Shut up." She grumbles. "I hope you don't still have a six pack."

 

"You wound me Clarke." Lexa teases and Clarke almost feels like she's with Lexa again, _her_ Lexa, the soft, gentle, caring, ever sweet, protective girl, she's known her whole life. She twists around slightly and takes a sharp breath in, Lexa's beauty hits her right in the face, like she'd just been slapped and woken up. She'd always known that Lexa was beautiful, everything about her was absolutely stunning, and she'd always known Lexa was attractive, but it was like two years away from Lexa had allowed Clarke to really appreciate her beauty before her eyes. She'd known Lexa since she was five years old, grown used to her beauty it seemed, that the two years apart meant that Clarke was finally just relaxing _how_ gorgeous Lexa really was and it was not boding well for her hopes of keeping their friendship alive.

 

Lexa cocks an eyebrow up at Clarke's lingering stare and the blonde averts her eyes immediately, hoping she hadn't been staring at Lexa's lips, but also knowing she had defiantly been staring at Lexa's lips. "TonDC is not far," Lexa almost whispers, as though Clarke had thrown her off a little. "you will be relieved of my presence soon, do not worry." Clarke sighs because that was the last thing she wanted. Lexa thought that Clarke was uncomfortable against her but, the fact was, Clarke was _too_ comfortable. Lexa had always felt like home and, now that Lexa was back, with Clarke leaning into her chest, she still did feel like home. Maybe Lexa would always be her home.

 

**//**

 

The rest of the ride to TonDC is silent, Clarke doesn't make an effort to talk to Lexa, and she's a little afraid of what will slip out of her mouth if she even attempted to start a conversation - they'd be talking about trees and Clarke was sure she'd let slip how she was feeling and she could not risk that. It didn’t help that Clarke was practically rubbing against Lexa every second and Clarke had to actively remind herself to _not_ moan at the sensation it gave her.

 

When TonDC came into sight, the grounders on horses stopped and dismounted, Lexa included, she slides off of the horse and then offers her hand, silently, to Clarke, in a gesture for her to take it, which, of course, she does, Clarke didn't want to further embarrass herself by falling flat on her face. Clarke takes Lexa's hand and almost jolts from the electric feeling that she feels fire through her, it's almost like Clarke's body was asleep and, when she finally touched Lexa, skin on skin, even if it was just hand holding, everything inside of her just woke up all at once, everything became sharper and more focused, everything was alright.

 

Clarke hops down from the horse and halts when she feels Lexa's hand at her hip. She gasps quietly but Lexa withdraws her hand a moment later holding Clarke's gun. Clarke frowns at the girl and then she notices the surrounding guards taking the weapons from her friends and her frown deepens. "No weapons inside of TonDC." Lexa explains and Clarke stares pointedly at Lexa's sword still strapped to her waist and then looks back up at Lexa with a raised brow.

 

One side of The commander's lip tilts up in an almost, lopsided, smile and Clarke wants to treasure that smile more than anything because Clarke missed that damn lopsided smile. "I'm the commander," Lexa explains. "and by no weapons, I mean no guns."

 

"So if I happen to have a knife in my boot, that's okay?" Clarke asks and Lexa lets out a barely noticeable huff but Clarke notices it.

 

"Fine, no _Skaikru_ can have a weapon inside of TonDC, not when relationships are so fragile, and not without strict permission from me." Lexa deadpans, before she hands the handgun to a passing guard who had been collecting the other's weapons. "I'm sorry Clarke but it's just the way that things have to be."

 

"Because you don't trust me." Clarke says accusingly and Lexa winces, only ever so slightly, it's barely a move of the head, but Clarke's an expert in all things Lexa and she knows a wince when she sees one.

 

"I do trust you Clarke." Lexa says, clearing her throat and steadying her gaze. "My people, however, do not, and allowing you to have weapons will make me look weak, like I can't protect them." Clarke closes her eyes and lets Lexa's words sink in - maybe the reason that Lexa looked older than what she actually was was due to her burden as a leader.

 

Clarke nods her head in understanding, opening her eyes to meet Lexa's bright green ones. "Okay," Clarke says softly. "I get it." Lexa straightens up, and gives a curt nod of her head, before she clasps her hands behind her back and begins walking towards TonDC, her long coat trailing behind her.

 

Clarke sighs as she watches her best friend walk away from her before she’s walking after her, joined by her group of friends that she'd brought with her. "You look a little flushed there Griffin." Raven teases. "Did you enjoy your ride with the commander?" She asks suggestively and Clarke blushes furiously, becoming flustered instantly, she shoves Raven playfully who just laughs at Clarke's embarrassment.

 

"Shut up." Clarke grumbles, walking a little faster to escape the brunette. They follow after the grounders at the front of the group, surrounded by other grounders, which Clarke assumes is just a precaution to keep them from harm.

 

They enter the village after a short amount of time and Clarke hears numerous yells of " _Heda_ !" and excitement ripples through the village like a wave. _They love her, they love Lexa._ Lexa carves out a path in front of her without even trying, children stand and look up at her in awe while standing at their parents feet, the adults, however, seem to lock onto the presence of _Skaikru_ before the children do and Clarke squirms under their vicious glares of disgust and hatred.

 

" _Hakom yu hir?"_ Someone yells and Clarke shrinks back into her group of friends, feeling the intense glare of the grounders a little overwhelming. " _Wamplei ste Skaikru_ !" Someone else yells. Lexa comes to a halt, the roaming guards doing the same, and the surrounding villagers all murmur their individual insults in their language at the delinquents. Then, with a shout of " _Ripa_!", a man bursts out of the surrounding villagers and runs towards Clarke with a knife brandished, intent on cutting Clarke down where she stood.

 

Clarke closes her eyes, ready for the blade to sink into her stomach and for her to die a very slow and painful death, only the blade never touches her, she hears a low grunt and her eyes fly open again.

 

The man was a mere few inches in front of Clarke, but Lexa was between them, her sword embedded in the villager's gut, blood drips down from the wound onto Lexa's sword and Clarke can't see her face but she's pretty sure Lexa's just as expressionless as she's been the whole time she's known her best friend on the ground. The man's eyes are wide, he's dropped his blade and chosen to hold onto Lexa's sword, as though he was confused as to why it was there.

 

Lexa kicks him off of her blade, the man landing in the mud with a thump, her blade now coated in a layer of scarlet red. Lexa wordlessly steps around the man, as though she hadn't just stabbed him, he was grunting and struggling to breathe and looked to be in severe pain. Clarke resists the urge to flinch when she sees Lexa's boot press to the man's throat and she turns her head away to look directly at Lexa. Lexa stares blankly at Clarke before she addresses the crowd.

 

" _Skaikru ste gouthru ona ai bana nau_ ." She says in a low, calm voice that exudes dominance and strength. Clarke feels a shiver down her spine. " _Du bilaik trana kot daun daun na kof em sonraun op._ " She states before pressing her boot down and snapping the man's neck. The crowd murmur and Clarke feels Bellamy step closer to her back - she hates to admit it, but his presence helps calm her. Clarke didn't know this Lexa, war paint, ruthless, heartless, this _wasn't_ her best friend, something must have really changed her.

 

"Clarke," Lexa addresses Clarke now and the blonde looks at her nervously. "we burn the bodies at noon." She informs her and Clarke assumes she means the bodies of the villagers that had died. "If you need anything, ask one of my warriors, they're the only people who speak English." She continues and Clarke nods her head before Lexa turns on her heel.

 

" _Wait_ ," Clarke calls stepping forward only to have the two guards point their spearheads at her stomach. Lexa turns around almost immediately, and glares at her guards, who instantly lower their weapons. "You're leaving?" Clarke asks.

 

"I must make preparations." Lexa says as monotone as ever. "Your people will be safe under my protection, you have my word."

 

"I know, I just..." Clarke trails off, suddenly feeling very exposed and very embarrassed. Lexa turns her head to the side, in that cute way that she always used to do when she didn't quite understand what someone was saying, and Clarke just knew that the old Lexa was still buried underneath all her new armour - _figuratively and literally_ \- that she now has. "I wanted to spend time with you." Clarke admits. The guards look at each other, and Lexa's gaze softens for a second that allows Clarke to see that her response had clearly surprised her, before she schools her expression back to her neutral one.

 

"We'll have plenty of time for that later." She says it in her normal commander tone but Clarke hears the softness to it and the subtle twitch of Lexa's lips. Clarke nods and allows Bellamy to pull her back by her shoulder into the safety of her people.

 

"Come on princess." Bellamy says quietly. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go home."

 

"What _home_ Bellamy?" Clarke snaps which clearly shocks Bellamy but Clarke felt soured now that Lexa was gone. "The dropship?"

 

"Well," He says, confused by Clarke's behaviour. "yeah." Clarke shakes her head.

 

"That's not home." Clarke mutters, falling into step beside him. She takes a moment to calm herself before turning to face Bellamy again. "I'm sorry," she apologises. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

 

"It's fine," Bellamy says dismissively. "Lexa's different now." He adds and Clarke nods in agreement. Lexa really was different now but Clarke could still see the Lexa that she once knew in there, and she was determined to get her best friend back, she just didn't know when Lexa had become a killer. Clarke wonders how many people Lexa's killed, the man she had cut down just a moment ago didn't even phase her in the slightest, suggesting that Lexa may have done a lot of that since being on the ground.

 

Clarke looks at Raven and Octavia, who were talking quietly among themselves, and then she looks at Bellamy, who's on alert, she's glad that Bellamy's here, he provides Clarke with comfort she didn't think she'd need but she does, he clearly doesn't trust the grounders and, honestly, neither does Clarke, but she does trust Lexa, she always will.

 

"It'll work out."

 

**//**

 

The next time Clarke sees Lexa, she's holding a torch of fire, standing next to a funeral pyre, that has bodies wrapped in cloth lined around it. Lexa's face is solemn and the majority of the surrounding villagers have their heads bowed in respect of the departed, even Clarke had her head tilted downwards in respect, that was, until she heard her name being called. "Clarke." Clarke's head snaps up to see Lexa turning towards her, holding the torch out for her to take and Clarke's eyes widen, the surrounding villagers mumble and whisper and Indra, Lexa's right hand person, looks completely surprised by Lexa's decision.

 

Clarke stares at Lexa like she might have lost her mind and Lexa simply nods her head and gestures for Clarke to come stand beside her. Clarke hesitantly takes a step forward beside her old friend, Lexa's face had a slight orange glow to it, thanks to the fire, she extends the torch to Clarke who takes it cautiously, very aware of the eyes watching her every move. Lexa gives her another nod of approval, gently calming Clarke's frayed nerves. The blonde tilts her hand forward and lowers the flame onto the tinder setting it alight easily.

 

" _Yu gonplei ste odon_." Lexa says and the surrounding crowd follow suit. Clarke turns her head to look at Lexa in confusion and she inches closer to lower her voice. "It means your fight is over." Lexa explains and Clarke nods her head, the heat from the slowly growing flames is hot against her skin and Clarke suddenly realised that they had killed these people, that their flares had crashed in their village and burnt it down, and she was overcome with guilt and sorrow.

 

" _Yu gonolei ste odon_." Clarke repeats. Lexa's brows shoot up in surprise at the foreign words that leave Clarke's mouth, they're a little stuttered, and said in a weird accent kind of way, but the fact that Clarke had even bothered to say them made all the difference. The surrounding grounders dip their heads at the words that Clarke says because it's more than just Clarke paying her respects, she's apologising, she's taking the blame for what happened and expressing how sorry she really is that these people had had to lose the people they loved.

 

Clarke stands by Lexa's side as the flames consume the whole of the funeral pyre and slowly reduce it to a pile of ashes. Slowly, people trickle away, the crowd thinning considerably, even those who Clarke had brought with her, disappeared somewhere, leaving Clarke to stand beside Lexa, not once wavering in her stance, as she stares down at the ashes on the ground. "There will be a feast tonight." Lexa says out of the blue, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. Clarke glances to her right to see the brunette staring at the ash pile, much like Clarke had been herself, Clarke turns back to face forward.

 

"A party?" Clarke asks. "After a funeral."

 

"Death is not sad Clarke." Lexa says flatly. "It is apart of life, we should celebrate the lives of the deceased, instead of mourning for what they have lost." Clarke swallows hard at that, keeping her eyes fixed forward. "The dead are gone Clarke, the living are hungry." Clarke sighs and looks to her left to see Lexa looking at her carefully, her green eyes bright with something that Clarke doesn't quite understand.

 

"I thought you were dead." Clarke ties to keep her voice perfectly neutral but it cracks, her despair slipping through the break and revealing how broken that thought had made her feel. Lexa raises her head slightly, her green eyes soften and Clarke wonders what Lexa looks like without the warpaint, without her coat and armour and sword, if she still looks like Lexa after all this time.

 

"I'm okay Clarke." Lexa says and it's the softest that Clarke has heard Lexa speak since she'd been reunited with her best friend.

 

"Are you?" Clarke asks, blinking back the tears that threatened to break free. Lexa pulls back a little at the question, it's barely noticeable, only a few inches at most, but Clarke sees it and she sees the way her question had hit Lexa right in the heart.

 

"I'm alive." Lexa murmurs quietly. "That's all that matters." Clarke wants to protest, she wants to say that being alive isn't only what matters, that Lexa should be happy, she deserves happiness, that she deserves to know who she is and what she wants, but it's not that easy, because Lexa being alive is all that matters to Clarke, because having Lexa not here beside her would destroy Clarke, because all that matters is that Lexa is here, standing beside Clarke, and she's breathing, and warm and _alive_.

 

Clarke can't stop remembering how effortless Lexa had looked when she'd killed that villager, sure, he had been aiming to kill Clarke, but Lexa had looked so utterly unaffected by the fact that she had taken someone else's life, and Clarke knew that Lexa had killed, she'd pretty much told her so when she'd told Clarke about defeating the mountain, but Clarke didn't realise that it was just like everyday business to the brunette.

 

Clarke focuses back on Lexa and banishes her thoughts to the back of her mind because all that mattered right now was that Clarke wanted to see and get to know her best friend all over again. "Yeah," Clarke agrees, swallowing the thickness in her throat. "Yeah, all that matters is that you're alive."

 

"And all that matters is that you're alive Clarke." Lexa replies quietly. "I thought I'd never see you again." The confession isn't said softly, it's more matter-of-factly, but it still somehow happens to become the softest confession that Clarke has heard spill form Lexa's lips - even more than that time that the brunette had confessed to Clarke that she had broken Abby's vase - and Clarke is thrown back into their years as kids.

 

* * *

_"Lexa, you're literally the smartest person in earth skills, why are you even talking about this right now?" Clarke asks with clear amusement as she opens the door to her compartment._

 

 _"Um,_ because I'm the smartest person in earth skills _?" Lexa says sarcastically, throwing her bag down next to the door. Clarke follows her example, slipping into their after school routine easily, they'd soon be joining work detail but they still had a few more months of sweet free time that Clarke was determined to spend every spare second of with her best friend. "Pike should've named me his star pupil." Lexa complains and Clarke rolls her eyes, following after the brunette who heads towards the sofa._

 

_"Hey," Clarke grabs Lexa by the back of her collar, pulling her backwards, towards her and away from the sofa. "first of all, you've been star pupil for about six months in a row, give someone else a shot," Clarke says and Lexa opens her mouth to protest but Clarke quickly silences her. "secondly, you are not spending our free time sleeping on my sofa." Lexa pouts and Clarke chuckles, releasing the brunette and walking towards the door again. "Come on, I have a plan."_

 

_"But I'm tired." Lexa protests. "And you promised me at least one cuddle."_

 

_"Later, I promise." Clarke says, tapping Lexa gently on the cheek, before stepping out of the compartment again. Lexa huffs but follows after Clarke anyway and Clarke smiles happily to herself because, in the end, Lexa always gave in to Clarke's wishes._

 

_The brunette trudges after her, fiddling with something in her pocket, which Clarke raises an eyebrow at but doesn't comment on. Clarke leads Lexa down a series of hallways, passing fellow Arkers who flash Clarke smiles every now and again when they recognise her as Dr Griffin's daughter, before they come to a stop in the vacant hallway that Clarke often came to from time to time._

 

_Clarke settles in front of the large window at the end of the hallway and stares down at the beautiful sight it gives of the earth. Clarke sighs longingly, her eyes scanning over the green of the continents and the beautiful blue of the oceans - that Lexa had once said were the same colour as Clarke's eyes. Lexa stands beside Clarke, her hands tucked away in the pockets of her bomber jacket, her presence is always calm and quiet and comforting, but Clarke feels it like a safety blanket, familiar and warm, having Lexa beside her is all that Clarke needs to feel safe._

 

_"It's beautiful isn't it?" Clarke asks gazing down at the earth with so much wonder in her bright blue eyes. Lexa turns her head, and stares at Clarke rather than the earth, her lips part and she takes a slow breath in._

 

_"Yeah," She whispers. "It is." Clarke turns her head and catches Lexa's gaze on her, she blinks a couple of times, feeling that familiar Lexa warmth envelop her tenfold, more intense than ever before, and it's because of the look that Lexa's giving her._

 

_Clarke tears her eyes away from Lexa and stares down at the world, she lifts her hand and rests the palm of it on the cold window. "The green reminds me of your eyes." Clarke admits and she almost blushes at the confession._

 

_"The blue reminds me of your's." Lexa replies, leaning her side against the window, unlike Clarke, she's not bothered about the earth, she'd much rather look at her best friend, and, even if she doesn't quite understand why she likes it so much, she just knows that Clarke is far more beautiful than some globe of land and water._

 

_"I'm going to go down there someday, you know that Lex?" Clarke asks with a small smile and Lexa snorts which only widens Clarke's smile._

 

_"Please," Lexa drawls. "no one's going down there, not in our lifetime."_

 

_"Can you imagine if we did though?" Clarke asks, glancing at Lexa who purses her lips in contemplation. "Just you and me."_

 

_"You and me?" Lexa asks with a raised brow._

 

_"You didn't think I'd leave you up here did you?" Clarke asks in a teasing tone, now turning to face her best friend rather than the earth. "We could be rulers of the earth."_

 

 _"That sounds awful." Lexa says wrinkling her nose. "You're far too much for me to handle alone, and_ you _, with power_ \- Ow _!" Lexa gives Clarke a playful scowl after the blonde hits her on the shoulder to shut up._

 

 _"_ Jerk _!" Clarke says with a gentle shove. "I'd be an amazing leader."_

 

_"I wouldn't bow to you." Lexa says rubbing her shoulder in an over dramatic show of pain - Clarke hadn’t hit her that hard._

 

_"I bet you would." Clarke says confidently. "You're way too loyal." Lexa rolls her eyes and Clarke notices her hand fiddling in her pocket again. "Seriously," Clarke says. "I wouldn't want to be down there without you."_

 

_"I wouldn't want to be anywhere without you." Lexa replies and Clarke grins brightly at her best friend who looked a little flustered. Clarke zeros in on her fidgeting hand again and narrows her eyes in suspicion._

 

_"What's that?" Clarke asks and Lexa's expression turns from flustered to guilty in a drop of a hat. Clarke frowns at her best friend, as she stands up straight and shifts from foot to foot._

 

_"Nothing." She replies and Clarke gives her a look of disbelief because it was obviously not nothing. Lexa diverts her gaze from Clarke's, knowing she wouldn't be able to hold her own when staring into Clarke's blue eyes, but the blonde simply tugs on Lexa's arm. "Fine, fine." Lexa says and Clarke raises her eyebrows expectantly. The brunette slowly pulls out a pencil from her pocket and Clarke's eyes widen._

 

_"Wha- where did you get that from Lexa?" Clarke asks in complete surprise because Lexa didn't get to spend her rations on anything her mother didn't approve, so it was unlikely she bought it, plus pencils were kind of rare on the Ark, they didn't really allow pencils for anything other than practical use._

 

_"Err," Lexa rubs the back of her neck nervously. "I kind of stole it from the art supplies."_

 

 _"You_ what _?" Clarke yells and Lexa frowns, clamping a hand over Clarke's mouth._

 

_"It's for you." Lexa says, her hand still over Clarke's mouth. "You always complain about how the one you used to have snapped so I got you a new one." She explains and Clarke's eyes soften._

 

 _"_ Mmmph _." Clarke says against Lexa's hand, which effectively makes Clarke's words sound like gibberish, Lexa cocks her head to the side in confusion and Clarke rolls her eyes, taking Lexa's hand from her mouth. "I said," Clarke says, taking the pencil from Lexa's hand. "thank you." Lexa smiles, one side of her mouth tilting up more than the other in her classic lopsided smile that Clarke absolutely adored._

 

_"Just draw me something." Lexa says and Clarke nods her head, wrapping her arms around Lexa's mid section and hugging her tightly, with a content sigh escaping her lips._

 

_"I'll draw you the world." Clarke whispers against the fabric of Lexa's jacket, which must absorb her words because Lexa doesn't seem to hear her, she simply wraps her arms around Clarke and holds her in a comforting warm hug. "I love you." Clarke says, more audible this time, and Lexa squeezes her gently, placing her chin on top of Clarke's head._

 

_"I love you too sunshine." Lexa murmurs and Clarke snorts._

 

_"Nerd." She comments and Lexa lets out a mock offended scoff which causes Clarke to grin in amusement. "Let's go home Lex." Clarke says, pulling out of the embrace, and Lexa follows after her best friend who slips the pencil into her own pocket now._

 

_"You promised me a cuddle... and food, don't forget." Lexa warns and Clarke laughs before she picks up her pace, breaking out into a run._

 

_"Race ya!" Clarke yells over her shoulder and Lexa runs after the blonde a second later._

 

_"Hey! That's not fair, you cheated!" Lexa protests._

 

_"You snooze you lose, loser!" Clarke yells back and she laughs when she hears Lexa grumble and pick up her pace. Lexa ends up winning anyway._

 

* * *

The feast was, in fact, more of a party. After eating on what was possibly the longest table Clarke had seen in her life, wine had been brought out and the villagers were indulging in some well deserved downtime. The wine was sweet and tasted like honey to Clarke but she didn't want to drink too much, she needed to stay sharp, and, it appeared, Lexa had the same inhibitions as she didn't drink a drop, she simply sat rigid in her throne, legs crossed, with her green eyes fixed in front of her - she barely ate either. Every now and then a villager would come over, kneel in front of Lexa and they'd exchange words in their language before the villager raised and left.

 

Clarke was sitting directly across from Lexa and, despite there being only a small distance between them, it felt like it was huge, like Lexa was far away and Clarke was just yelling into the abyss for her to come back. "Lexa!" Clarke jumps when a loud, boisterous, voice yells her best friend's name and dumps herself in the seat beside Clarke, leaning against the table with a drunk smile. "Long time no see old buddy." It was Raven and she was so clearly drunk.

 

"Raven." Lexa says, her face still expressionless. "It's good to see you're still well."

 

"Of course I am." Raven scoffs, guzzling down more wine, and Clarke would stop her of it wasn't for the fact that Lexa was smiling ever so slightly at Raven. "I missed working with you, we were like... like... Clarke, what's something that works really well?" Raven asks and Clarke laughs shaking her head.

 

"You’re drunk Raven." Clarke states and Raven frowns at her, shoving the blonde's shoulder gently.

 

"You're drunk." Raven says and Clarke laughs but, before she can set Raven straight, the brunette turns to Lexa again. "Anyway, so you're the commander huh?" Raven asks and Lexa hesitantly nods. "How'd that happen?"

 

"It's a long story." Lexa replies.

 

"Yeah," Raven sighs, exaggeratedly, and sticks her thumb out towards Clarke. "blondie said that too." Raven says leaning across the table further. "God, you because so much hotter," Raven says and Lexa's eyebrows shoot up and Clarke swears her cheeks turn pink a little. "right Clarke? Don't you think?"

 

"Um..." Clarke shifts awkwardly and Raven rolls her eyes.

 

"Too slow Griffin." Raven says and Clarke shakes her head at Raven’s drunken rambling. Raven narrows her eyes at Lexa, who sits up more, Indra, who was beside Lexa, looks at her commander for a second, shoots Raven and Clarke a death glare, which Clarke was starting to think was just her natural look, before she looked somewhere else.

 

"So you've been down here the whole time?" Raven asks and Lexa nods again. "Man fuck Jaha and his lies, I knew you were alive." Raven says before pointing to her gut. "I could feel it." Lexs takes a deep breath, not opening her mouth to reply, and Clarke remains silent herself. "I missed you Woods." Indra frowns at the word ,and Clarke assumes it's because every grounder that Clarke's met hasn't got a last name, but Lexa isn't a grounder, well, not technically.

 

"I missed you too Raven." Lexa replies. "Though I don't miss your constant bandaging and your poking into my business." Lexa says dryly and Raven snorts.

 

"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Raven takes another swig from her goblet.

 

"Raven, I really think you've had enough." Clarke says, gently taking the goblet from her hand. Raven frowns at the blonde, before she shrugs, and stumbles her way to her feet, disappearing without another word, and Clarke really hopes she doesn't get herself in trouble. "Murphy!" Clarke calls the boy over and he comes wearing his classic Murphy scowl. "Can you _please_ watch Raven and make sure she doesn't hurt herself." Murphy, surprisingly, goes without protest and Clarke sighs, running her hands through her hair in exasperation.

 

Around her, the crowd is rowdy, and the only light was from the torches, set up around them, which dipped everyone in a strong orange glow, like the sunset, only not as vivid. Lexa watches Clarke like she wants to say something, like she wants to ask if Clarke is okay, and Clarke doesn't even know if she could answer that honestly, instead, the brunette simply stands from her throne and straightens her clothing out. "Please excuse me," Lexa says. "I should go prepare a few things," she excuses. "your people will be able to sleep in one of the buildings that Indra showed you to." Clarke nods her head and watches as the brunette slinks away, disappearing into a nearby tent, grabbing a rag and water on her way.

 

Clarke sighs and pushes herself up to her feet. She can see Wells and Bellamy together, Wells talking to a few of the grounder children, who clearly don't understand what he's saying, but it doesn't really matter because the boy just shows them silly magic tricks with an old coin he had found lying around, while Bellamy watches Wells with an amused smirk. Murphy was holding a vomiting Raven's hair back with a severely unimpressed look, while Octavia was talking to Lincoln, who was looking significantly better than he had a couple of days ago, though he was still bruised. Clarke picks up Raven's goblet and downs the remaining liquid, closing her eyes tightly, before turning and walking away from the crowd.

 

Clarke slips past grounders, who practically move out of her way anyway, and heads towards the woods, hoping to just get away for a moment. She slips into the woods unnoticed, or so she thinks, and begins walking further away from the village until the rowdy crowd is a distant sound. Clarke just needed some space, space from what, she wasn't sure, but she needed to just think. She was confused, when she looked at Lexa, she saw her best friend, the days they spent cuddled on the sofa, or in bed, or in air ducts, or their time spent in school, their time _together,_ and now, not only did she see that in Lexa, she saw this new person, a kind of sadness that surrounded her, Lexa wasn't herself, and yet, she was, and Clarke just _didn't know._

 

She walks further into the forest and groans when she sees a flash of light, and a clap of thunder that follows, she imagines the party is probably drawing to a close now, thanks to the impending rain that was likely to fall soon, but Clarke doesn't turn around, she walks deeper into the forest. She just keeps walking, until she steps into a certain spot and hears the sound of something clicking and then, in one smooth motion, Clarke is lifted into the air, hanging upside down, snared in what was likely a hunting trap.

 

She curses, quite loudly, and looks up to see her foot tied by a thick rope. "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Clarke curses. Clarke could be left hanging there for days, without food and without water she would die, and this might just go down in history for the most embarrassing, stupid, death of all time. ‘Death by hanging upside down after accidentally stepping in a hunter's trap’ didn't exactly make Clarke look like the brightest of people, plus, it didn't exactly roll off the tongue either.

 

Yeah, she'd probably get a nickname, maybe, ‘the low hanging fruit’, or, she didn't even want to begin to think of what the grounders would call her, they had a name for just about everything, and, if Clarke didn't know any better, they'd probably call her something mean in their weird language.

 

Naturally, that's when she hears the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind her. "Clarke." Clarke closes her eyes at the sound of her name and the obvious amusement layered in the tone of the familiar voice. "What are you doing?" Of course it just _had_ to be Lexa who discovered Clarke dangling from a tree, suspended in the air like some first prize deer, _because why not?_ Then again, Clarke was a little thankful that it was Lexa, had it been any other grounder, they might have left her hanging there, and her fellow Arkers would never let her live the tale down.

 

"Oh, you know," Clarke drawls, rolling her eyes. "just hanging around." She says. She hears a low chuckling sound, that becomes louder, before it's a full fledged laugh and Clarke feels a prickling in her gut at the sound, hearing her best friend laughing at her - _with_ her- again, was one of the best feelings Clarke had ever had.

 

She hears shuffling and then Lexa is in front of her, they're face to face, through, granted, Clarke's face is upside down, but she's hanging at perfect height and Clarke remembers Spider-Man, one of the rare movies that had somehow been saved in the destruction of the earth and brought on board of the metal spacecraft, and she thinks that this moment between her and Lexa might be a lot like that iconic scene from Spider-Man - what with the hanging upside down and the face to face-ness of this whole situation.

 

Lexa is beautiful, despite her now sharp jaw bone, which, actually, just happens to make her hotter and more attractive, Lexa's eyes seem almost greener in the darkening of the sky and the surrounding green of the forest, her skin is smooth and tan thanks to years of being under the sun, her brown, usually untamed, hair is pulled back from her face, and Clarke knows that it's tied in intricate braids and patterns down her back, her lips look soft and plump and, oh so kiss-

 

 _No_ , _no_ , Clarke was _not_ thinking about kissing her best friend.

 

Lexa is free of her warpaint, which Clarke is thankful for because this is _her_ Lexa, this is the one she knows and loves and cares for, her expression is soft and, although her smile isn't quite there, it shines through in the glistening of her emerald eyes. "Hey." Clarke says face splitting into a wide grin. Lexa lets out as harsh breath that brushes against Clarke's face and Clarke's pretty sure she just made the commander laugh twice in one conversation - _that has to be a record right?_

 

"Hi." Lexa replies, her eyes drift up and down Clarke, almost critically, and Clarke feels a little self conscious, though it might have something or do with the blood rushing to her head.

 

There's a moment of tense silence, of the pair's eyes trailing over one another, drinking in the sight of each other, and Clarke notices that Lexa's wearing only light armour, probably as casual as she gets these days, though the clothes really do hug her body in the best ways - especially the pants, those pants are really fucking tight and working for Lexa.

 

There's a part of Clarke that feels warm and fuzzy, and there's a tight sensation that pools in the pit of her stomach when she looks at her best friend, and then she feels guilty and wrong, like she shouldn't be looking at Lexa that way because they're best friends, and that's not how best friends should look at each other, but there's something familiar about it, like Clarke has always had this feeling when laying eyes on Lexa, that it confuses her, draws her attention to her feelings, but then it's overcome by the guilty feeling again and Clarke hates how conflicted her emotions seem.

 

"It's cold out Clarke." Lexa says, raising her chin, Clarke's pretty sure the brunette had been focused on her lips for a good majority of that time but it might just be the whole blood rushing to the head thing. "I advise you don't hang out for much longer."

 

"Cut me down Lexa." Clarke huffs and then something surprising happens, something that really shoots a thrill through Clarke's body, Lexa grins at her, an honest to god, toothy grin, that shows off her playful side and the easy going person who Clarke had known on the Ark.

 

"This reminds me of that time you knotted your shoelaces so bad I had to cut them so you could free your feet." Lexa chimes in amusement and Clarke scoffs, looking down at the ground instead of at Lexa.

 

"Yeah, well, don't forget I know all the embarrassing stories about you." Clarke threatens, her eyes darting back up to meet narrowed green eyes. "How would your people like to know that their all mighty commander, mountain slayer, used to sleep with the lights on because she was afraid of the dark."

 

"You wouldn't." Lexa says, bringing a hand up to her chest and giving Clarke a dramatic gasp.

 

"Try me." Clarke deadpans, crossing her arms across her chest, but it’s a little hard to hold that position, and to look threatening, when hanging upside down.

 

"You know Clarke, insects and spiders tend to come out at night." Lexa says offhandedly and Clarke freezes. "Some are even affected by the radiation and like the taste of human flesh." Lexa makes a crawling action with her two fingers, walking them up Clarke's cheek, and Clarke glares at the girl - though it's not as menacing as she wishes it to be since she's distracted by the warmth of Lexa's fingers and the tingling sensation it leaves on her skin.

 

"That's not funny." Clarke says, shaking her head stubbornly. "You know I'm afraid of spiders." There hadn't been any on the Ark but they still had school and one of the teachers had somehow got his hands on a pet tarantula, that Clarke didn't even want to think of right now, but the arachnid was terrifying and learning about them in science, and occasionally in earth skills, had sent chills down Clarke's spine.

 

"Cut me down, seriously, before I start panicking." Clarke says glancing around nervously, what if an insect had already gotten into her pants, or her hair, or her shirt, Clarke shudders and Lexa laughs at the sight which distracts Clarke from her fear. That was three times and nothing sounded better than Lexa's laugh, that was a certainty now, Lexa's laugh was pure and beautiful.

 

"I guess I know your fears and you know mine." Lexa replies stepping forward so they were mere inches apart.

 

"I know everything about you Lexa." Clarke whispers, her breath breaching over the small gap between them and hitting Lexa like the small breeze. She looks almost sad at Clarke's words and Clarke gets it because, maybe she has missed a good portion of Lexa's life, and yeah she might not totally understand the commander, or how Lexa has become so closed off and ruthless in her ruling, but she's still the same Lexa who used to cuddle in bed with her, the same Lexa who used her rations to buy Clarke a birthday muffin, the same Lexa who confessed she liked girls, the same Lexa who fought tooth and nail to reach Clarke as she was being dragged away, the same Lexa who had once had two missing front teeth at the same time when she was five years old, Lexa was still _Lexa_ deep down, and she always would be.

 

A low thunder clap sounds and Lexa looks up at the sky with a smile. "It's going to rain." She states and Clarke finds herself distracted by the way Lexa's lips move and she wonders briefly what they taste like before pushing the thought aside. "As much as I'd love to see you soaked to the bone like a drowned rat, hanging from a tree, this will be your first experience in the rain, correct?" Clarke tries to not recoil at Lexa's tone, but it's more formal than it had been a minute ago, and even more formal than it had been when she had been living on the Ark, Clarke wonders where Lexa got her etiquette from.

 

"Hold onto me Clarke." Lexa instructs, stepping even closer to Clarke, Clarke's breath hitches in her throat before she loops her arms around Lexa's midsection, though Clarke didn't see this going any other way than with her landing in the dirt below her.

 

"Uh, Lex." Clarke says, the nickname rolling off her tongue like it always used to, both girls give pause at the nickname, and Clarke's very aware of the burning sensation she feels in her cheeks and on her arms where they lay around Lexa's slim frame. "I know physics wasn't really my strong suit but, I'm pretty sure the second you cut that rope I'll fall on my ass." Clarke says with a nervous laugh, shaking off her weird energy. Lexa doesn't say anything but Clarke hears the sound of a blade being unsheathed. "Lexa." Clarke says in a warning tone but Lexa simply ignores her, reaching her hand up with the blade in her palm.

 

_"Lexa-!"_

 

Clarke lets out a squeal as she feels herself falling and, in her attempt to stop herself from falling, she grips onto Lexa harder, before she feels two strong arms wrap around her body, catching her, and effectively stopping her from falling. Clarke lets out a sound that sounds similar to _‘oof’_ as she blinks up and sees Lexa's smirking face above her. "Did you really think I'd let you fall?" Lexa asks. She shifts and then tilts Clarke to the ground so her feet can touch the soft grass and Clarke can stand on her own.

 

"You're stronger than I remember." Clarke mumbles, rubbing her leg where the rope had been attached to. Seriously though, Lexa was as hard as a rock, all lean muscle and pure strength, the perfect embodiment of what a warrior should be, a big difference from the girl on the Ark, which, Lexa had always been lean, but she was scrawnier, skinny even, thanks to her missed meals and lack of rations - _she must have eaten a lot of red meat,_ Clarke thinks to herself.

 

Clarke gazes up at the sky, through the small breaks of the dark clouds, she could make out the twinkling of stars, the brightest one was the Ark, which was orbiting the earth full of the rest of her people. Clarke takes a deep breath, the warmth of Lexa beside her is distracting, but comforting all the same, and Clarke takes a moment to just enjoy this scene. "It's beautiful." Clarke whispers. Lexa looks down and focuses on Clarke, her eyes slowly drifting up and down her face, taking in all the familiarity and beauty that was Clarke Griffin.

 

"Yeah." Lexa says a little breathlessly. "It is." Clarke's lips lift in a smile and she turns to see Lexa's green eyes focused intently on her, like they were burning with some kind of emotion, Clarke thinks it might be deja vu, but Lexa's turning her head up towards the sky before Clarke can really read into it. "I know what you're thinking Clarke." Lexa states, turning away from her best friend to face forward.

 

"Hmm?" Clarke hums curiously, lifting her eyebrows, the thickening of the clouds obstructs her view and a low clap of thunder, and a flash, in the distance signals the first sign that it's going to rain, and heavily.

 

"That we’re savages." Lexa states, her voice now flat and impassive, as it had been when she went into, what Clarke liked to call, ‘the Commander mode’. "That our ways are harsh." Lexa adds. Clarke turns her head to look at Lexa, her brow furrowing as she does so, and gazes at Lexa who inclines her chin up slightly while clenching it. "But it's how we survive." Lexa says, turning to look at Clarke. Clarke examines Lexa's face in the darkening light, despite her now sharp edges, there was still softness to Lexa's gaze, and her lips, and her beauty, that Clarke could never forget.

 

"Maybe life should be about more than just surviving." Clarke says, voice low and gentle, she watches as Lexa's lips twitch up in a small smile, a _barely_ smile, and she nods her head ever so slightly in acknowledgement of Clarke's words.

 

"Maybe." She relents. Clarke sighs and closes her eyes for a moment.

 

"I was actually thinking about how much you've changed." Clarke confesses, opening her eyes again to see Lexa staring at her intently. "How different you are." Clarke says with a small frown. "On the Ark, you never... you were passive aggressive at most-"

 

"Now I'm just aggressive?" Lexa asks with a raised brow and Clarke backtracks on her words instantly.

 

"No, no, I just mean, my Lexa wasn’t so authoritative." Clarke didn't know how to phrase it, not really, she just meant that, Lexa on the Ark had been almost shy compared to what Lexa was now: a commanding presence, and the blood on her hands, something has changed in Lexa, she was colder and more distant, especially with her feelings, than Clarke could remember, of course, Lexa had never really been good in the whole feelings department, but she wasn't as bad as she was now, not that she was bad, she was just _different_ that's all.

 

"Murdering hundreds of people will do that to you." Lexa responds flatly and Clarke's stomach churns in the most uncomfortable of ways. "The ground will do that to you."

 

"I'm so sorry Lexa." Clarke felt like an insensitive idiot, she knew Lexa had slayed the mountain and, although she didn't really know what that meant, she knew it must have involved death in some kind of way. Lexa shrugs impassively, her eyes focused on Clarke, they sparkled in the dark and Clarke could stare at them forever.

 

"You must understand why my people feel threatened by you." Lexa says and Clarke was almost disappointed they'd moved on from talking about themselves anymore. "The last people who possessed the technology and weapons as the sky people were the mountain men, our greatest foes, and you possess even better technology than they did." Lexa explains. "I know that."

 

"But their commander came from the sky?" Clarke asks with a frown. "They must know that we’re not like the mountain men if you came from the sky too?"

 

"I didn't come down brandishing weapons with supplies and a hundred other passengers." Lexa's voice lilts a little towards anger - or maybe resentment at Jaha for basically abandoning her to die on the ground. "I came to them a broken girl and proved myself after felling the mountain and training as a warrior under Anya." Lexa says, her voice returning back to its neutral tone, Clarke goes silent as the first few drops of rain splash against her skin.

 

"You should come to Polis." Lexa says quietly. "It is our capital, it's more..." Lexa tails off for a second, her eyes becoming distant and a smile tugging at her lips. "It'll change the way you think about us." Clarke smiles at Lexa's words, tilting her head up to the sky to feel the raindrops on her face.

 

"I think I'd like that." Clarke replies, because it had to be better than the loss and death that had happened the last few days of being on the ground, too much had happened, too much sadness for Clarke's tastes.

 

The rain starts pouring down into a roar of water and Clarke lets loose a loud laugh feeling exhilarated and free from the rain hitting her skin and soaking through her clothes. "It's raining Lexa!" Clarke yells over the downpour and, to her surprise, Lexa is actively smiling, amusement clear on her face.

 

"I can see that Clarke." Lexa calls back as Clarke throws her hands up in the air.

 

"It's so freeing!" Clarke shouts with joy and Lexa chuckles, nodding her head in agreement. " _Whoo_!" Clarke cries out, her voice echoing through the forest and up into the sky - maybe the Ark would hear her. Clarke tilts her head back, opening her arms out, in a stance that resembled that statue that Clarke had read about in one of her old history books, as the rain soaked her right to the bones, deep in, through her skin, in a freezing downpour, and Lexa just watches her with fond amusement.

 

"You'll catch a cold Clarke!" Lexa calls and Clarke looks back at her with a wide grin.

 

"I've never felt this way before." Clarke says, and maybe this is normal to Lexa, she's had two years to get used to the feeling, but Clarke has never felt the rain on her skin, or the way it falls with such power, the sky rumbles and, somewhere in the distance, a bright light flashes through the sky. Clarke looks back at Lexa in wonderment to see the girl has a look of anxiety on her face.

 

Clarke frowns at Lexa's nerves and the commander simply crosses her arms across her chest. She was soaked too but, unlike Clarke, Lexa wasn't making a big deal of it, she looked impossibly impassive, her wet braids stuck to her face in places and Clarke could already see how curled it was going to be after it dried, she looked unimpressed, and resembled something of a drowned rat, but Clarke found the sight endearing.

 

"Lightning." Lexa states. "It's dangerous to be in the woods during a storm." Lexa elaborates and Clarke shrugs her shoulders. "You should stay in my quarters tonight," Lexa says, stepping closer to Clarke to be heard over the downpour. "your clothes will need to be dried and then we can leave for Polis as soon as possible."

 

"Yes Commander." Clarke teases and Lexa rolls her eyes.

 

"Call me Lexa Clarke." With that, Lexa turns on her heel and heads back towards TonDC. Clarke watches after her with a big goofy grin, looks up at the sky one last time, before she scampers off to catch up with Lexa before she disappeared completely. Lexa was the same, a little rough around the edges, but the same underneath nevertheless.

 

**//**

 

When they return back to Lexa's quarters Clarke is surprised that Lexa offers her some clothes to sleep in, which was probably mostly to do with the fact that Clarke's clothes were soaked through, so Clarke accepted and was now stood in the Commander's quarters, clad in a pair of ragged shorts and a shirt that was ripped in places but soft and comfortable enough to sleep in. Clarke had tried to dry her hair but it was difficult to do so without a towel at her disposal.

 

Despite the buildings being concrete rubble, inside they were quite warm, though that might have to do with the scattered candles and the fire that Lexa had ordered to be lit in a fireplace in the corner of the room. The room wasn't huge, and Clarke had a feeling that it was rarely used by the commander, but it was obviously fit for luxury because it had thick furs sitting on the bed and looked as though it was not used by anyone other than Lexa and Clarke wonders if maybe every village has a room reserved only for the commander... or a tent.

 

Clarke sifts through papers on a nearby table, most of them were maps, trade routes, hunting traps, that kind of thing, but there was also old war plans, tactics, things that the commander might have used in a past war. Among the piles of paper was a drawing, it was old, maybe even dated by a couple of years, but the drawing is unmistakably Lexa, only she's younger, more like Clarke remembers her being, she's holding a sword in a defensive position, her hair is tied back into braids, not as neat as they are as the commander but still tight, they're swishing through the air and the artist of this piece really caught every aspect of Lexa, from the softness in her eyes, but also the fire there of determination, her jaw isn't as sharp and she looks so unburdened than she does now, her body isn't as tightly wound.

 

Clarke jumps when she hears the door open and Lexa step inside, she's dressed in a casual long sleeved shirt, along a new dry pair of pants - Clarke wonders if maybe she's wearing the commander's clothes. Lexa walks into the room, her eyes zeroed in on the piece of paper in Clarke's hand, while Clarke has to tear her eyes away from Lexa without her war paint and her hair free from its braids. She looks like her Lexa, like the Lexa she knew on the Ark, soft and unfairly beautiful, _her best friend_ , all she needed was her stupid bomber jacket and she'd be just like the old Lexa.

 

Lexa walks towards Clarke and the blonde sets the drawing down on the table again before turning to face Lexa who was approaching the blonde. "I forgot that was here." Lexa admits quietly, eyeing the drawing with a look akin to pain. "I haven't been back in TonDC for a long time, not since just after the mountain."

 

Lexa trails her fingers over the drawing and lets out a sigh. "Costia drew that for me." Lexa whispers and Clarke looks at the brunette whose eyes were a mix of both pain and fondness. "That was my second training session with Anya." Clarke purses her lips, her thoughts on the tip of her tongue, but she was hesitant to ask the brunette about the person who she was speaking of out of fear of crossing a line which was weird because Clarke could never cross a line with her best friend, they'd crossed about every line ever created before, so Clarke didn't understand her hesitance - only that she wasn't so completely sure she wanted to hear what Lexa had to say and she wasn't sure if she liked the pain she saw on her face.

 

"Costia?" Clarke asks gently, her words barely above a whisper, and Lexa tears her gaze away from the drawing to look at Clarke.

 

"She was someone special." Lexa confesses. "I met her when Lincoln took me in, she was a healer and she helped keep me fed and strong." Lexa explains. "We..." Lexa falters for a moment, her green eyes glassy and dim in the candlelight. "She was mine, and then, when I became _Heda_ , she was taken from me by the Ice Nation, they we're rebelling against my command at the time," Lexa says and Clarke listens closely. "they tortured her, cut off her head and delivered it to my bed because she was mine." Clarke's heart stops beating in her chest, she takes a breath in but it never comes back out, she stares at Lexa, who's eyes look dark with grief despite how long ago it must have been - there was alliance now.

 

"Love's never done anything but hurt me." Lexs shoves the drawing under the other piles of paper, burying it and blocking it from her vision, before she turns and walks towards the fireplace with Clarke trailing behind her.

 

"You loved her?" Clarke asks and Lexa leans against the fireplace with a sigh that causes her to deflate. "Have you- you said _love's_ never done anything but hurt you, have you loved anyone else?" Clarke asks slowly - she wasn't sure she wanted Lexa to answer that question but she waited nethertheless.

 

Lexa is silent for a while as she watches the flames of the fire flicker, the heat from the fire made her feel toasty and warm and Clarke stood just a few feet behind her. "I've only ever loved two people in my life," Lexa answers slowly. "one never knew, and I don't think she ever felt the same way, the other was killed _because_ I loved her." Lexa says bitterly and Clarke takes a steps towards Lexa, she was inches away, _millimetres_ , despite being reunited with her best friend, she hadn't actually touched her, not really, and she was dying to just feel Lexa again, to hold her in her arms, to smell her scent, _everything_ , _she wanted Lexa_.

 

"How could she not know?" Clarke asks and Lexa turns around, probably sensing how close Clarke was, she doesn't make a move to step back which gives Clarke enough confidence to step forward.

 

"I don't know." Lexa replies. "I guess I was too afraid to tell her how I felt." She admits and Clarke softens immediately, she had been feeling like that a lot recently - _especially_ about Lexa. Clarke had come to the conclusion that, _maybe_ , her feelings for Lexa went beyond just best friends.

 

She used to think they were soulmates on the Ark, that they were destined to find each other and to be together, and maybe she'd always been in love with Lexa but she had been too oblivious to actually see it, to recognise how deep her feelings ran, it all added up, the fear she had felt when she found out Lexa had been assigned to the guard, the way she had felt warm to every inch of her limbs when lying with Lexa in her small cot, the countless times she had ran away with Lexa into various different air ducts and told her every secret that Clarke had to give, and the happiness and warmth she had felt in her chest when Lexa only did little things, like when she'd bought her a muffin on her birthday, it was undeniable. Lexa was the only person who Clarke trusted the most in the world and, at some point, she'd fallen in love with her best friend.

 

"Maybe you still can." Clarke mutters, though it pains her to say so, to encourage Lexa to go after that person who isn't herself, but there's always been one thing that Clarke's wanted and that's for Lexa to be happy and this Lexa, the commander, she's not happy, she's burdened, she's broken, she's cold and hard and ruthless and she's suffering silently and alone and it breaks Clarke's heart.

 

"I don't think so." Lexa says turning to face Clarke rather than the fire. "I've changed, she's changed, I don't think we fit together anymore."

 

"Some people grow apart," Clarke relents. "but you know what they say, if you love something, set it free, if it comes back to you, it's yours, if it doesn't-"

 

"It never was." Lexa finishes for her, nodding her head in understanding.

 

Lexa came back to Clarke.

 

But she wasn't her's.

 

"What happened to you Lexa?" Clarke asks as the girl sits down on a nearby chair. Clarke could make out only a couple of scars on her shoulder and Clarke knew, from talking to Lincoln briefly, that they represented kills.

 

"The ground." Lexa answers sombrely. "It made me who I am, a killer." Clarke shakes her head, settling in the seat across from her best friend.

 

"No," Clarke says in denial. "you're a survivor." She states and Lexa doesn't respond to that statement because Clarke knows it to be true, they've all done what they had to to survive, Lexa killed to save her people, to save herself, to save her friends, her family, everyone. _Did that make her killer?_ Technically, yes, but she had done it out of love and that's what they say: all is fair in _love_ and _war_.

 

"I missed you so much." Clarke confesses. "When I was in solitary, I used to draw the ground, I used to draw you." Lexa smiles at that and Clarke finds herself smiling right back.

 

"I missed you too Clarke and, if I could draw, I would have drawn you too." Lexa says fondly and Clarke chuckles, it was true, Lexa couldn't even draw a decent stickman without it going wrong in some kind of way.

 

Clarke reaches into her pocket of her shorts and pulls out the photograph that she had stashed there after retrieving it from her soaked coat pocket. Luckily, the photo hadn't gotten too wet, though the edges were curling a little, but it wasn't destroyed which was what Clarke was truly thankful for. "I think my mom put this in my pocket." Clarke says holding the picture to her chest just out of Lexa's line of sight. "Maybe she was trying to tell me something." Clarke hands the picture over to Lexa and the blonde watches as Lexa's emotionless mask completely crumbles away. She smiles at first, a genuine, reminiscing, smile, before a flurry of emotions cross her features: pain, regret, longing, hurt, fondness, happiness, love, before she comes back to her almost smile.

 

"I remember this," Lexa says running her finger over the picture. "that was a good day, I was so proud of you." Lexa says and the smile on her face warms Clarke's chest to almost painful temperatures. It's moments like this when Clarke fees what Lexa's smile alone can do to her, that Clarke is reminded of how deep her feelings really run.

 

"I'm proud of you." Clarke whispers, and she really was, Lexa had done a lot, suffered through so much, and she was still standing, Clarke was beyond proud of that, _who wouldn't be?_ Lexa looks up in surprise, the picture still held firmly between her fingers.

 

"Thank you." Lexa says holding Clarke's gaze. "I never stopped being proud of you Clarke, I've been your biggest fan since you drew a tiger in first year." Lexa hands the picture back and Clarke stares at it as though seeing a ghost, this Lexa is both here and gone at the same time and it makes Clarke's stomach flutter and churn all at once.

 

"Do you remember what we promised one another?" Clarke asks slowly as she takes the photo back from Lexa's grip.

 

"Of course I do." Lexa responds her hand flexes slightly, as though she's remembering the hooking of their two pinkies, the whispered promise they'd made as a couple of teenagers and they still are a couple of teenagers, just barely, but teenagers nevertheless.

 

"We promised that we'd always find each other, that we'd always be together." Clarke says and Lexa nods her head. "We found each other." Clarke states with a wide smile and Lexa rises from her seat.

 

"We did." Lexa agrees and Clarke stands herself stepping towards the brunette. Lexa narrows her eyes slightly and, standing this close to Lexa, Clarke notices a thin rope around her neck, tucked into below her t-shirt is a necklace of some kind, what it has on it, Clarke doesn't know, but she's not really concerned with that at the moment.

 

She doesn't allow herself time to think, she doesn't allow herself the time to back out of this, because she's missed Lexa, and she just wants to touch her and hold her again, so Clarke steps forward and throws her arms around Lexa's neck and pulls the girl towards her into a tight embrace. Clarke feels Lexa tense immediately, as stiff as a board, awkward and maybe a little surprised, before she melts completely into Clarke. Her body melds into Clarke's like they had been made for each other, her arms come to wrap around the blonde's waist and she buries her head into Clarke's shoulder, a rough breath pushes through her lips and Clarke feels Lexa's chest expand and deflate with a heavy sigh.

 

Clarke wonders how long it's been since Lexa's been held, since how long Lexa's been held like she might break from the intensity of it, since Lexa's felt the simple comfort of being held by someone else, the commander doesn't get touched or held, that much Clarke knows without even needing to ask, so Clarke can only assume that it's been a very long time since Lexa has taken comfort in any form of human contact.

 

"I love you Lexa." Clarke breathes, the words spilling freely from her lips in a confession that she knows Lexa won't hear, but she means it, she means it like Lexa won't understand.

 

"I love you too Clarke." Lexs whispers back, her eyes closed tightly, her voice wavers only ever so slightly but Clarke puts it down to the unfamiliar feeling of being held, of the amount of time that Lexa has been absent from Clarke's life, because Lexa doesn't love Clarke like Clarke loves Lexa, Lexa has that someone who she loves but they don't know it, Lexa's afraid of telling that girl but she's not afraid to tell Clarke. They're best friends, and they love each other, but that doesn't stop Clarke for wanting more, for needing more, so her arms tighten and she pulls Lexa harder against her, letting her unspoken emotions translate through her crushing hold.

 

Lexa doesn't get the message.

 

The brunette steps back and gives Clarke an almost sad look before she offers a brave smile. "It's a two day ride to Polis, one at least if we ride quickly, you should get some rest Clarke." Lexa says, stepping further back, putting distance between them, the thickening atmosphere lessens with every step back that Lexa takes.

 

"If this is your quarters, where will you sleep?" Clarke asks with a frown and Lexa simply stares at her with a blank expression.

 

"I will sleep in another bed." Lexa says, not giving much details away. "I will leave you alone to sleep." Lexa says and she sounds so formal compared to what she had before.

 

"We could just share the bed Lexa." Clarke says and Lexa stumbles a little on her feet which serves to entertain Clarke a little.

 

"No, that, erm, no." Clarke has to stifle a laugh at how quickly Lexa dropped her formal attitude and stumbles over her words. "It's been a long time, maybe we should take it slow." Lexa says hesitantly and Clarke tries to not let her disappointment show and just gives Lexa a slow nod. Lexa bows her head slightly and turns on her heel to leave when Clarke calls out for her again.

 

"Lexa, wait!" Clarke calls and Lexa halts in her steps, she turns to face the blonde and gives her an expectant look. "You knew that the flares were to contact the Ark didn't you?" Clarke asks. "Your people didn't, they thought we were attacking, that we burnt that village on purpose, but you _knew_ the real reason." Clarke states and Lexa nods hesitantly. "So why did you say we burnt a village down like it was purposeful, like that had been our aim, when you knew that wasn't true?" Clarke asks.

 

"Sometimes it's easier to believe some things than others." Lexa says cryptically. "Plus, you did burn down a village Clarke, I'm the commander, my people come first, they will _always_ come first." And, with that, the brunette exits the room, taking Clarke's heart right along with her.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Dula op yu get klin chon bilaik gada ste? - Do you know this girl?  
> Skai raunon - Sky person  
> Ai laik Skai raunon - I am sky person  
> No, yu laik Heda, kom Trikru - No, you are the commander, from Trikru  
> Chil yu au, Indra - Relax Indra  
> Em ste no jomp op kom ai - She is no threat to me  
> Hakom yu hir? - Why have you brought them here?  
> Wamplei ste Skaikru - Death to the sky people  
> Ripa - Murderer  
> Skaikru ste gouthru ona ai bana nau - The sky people march with us now  
> Du bilaik trana kot daun daun na kof em sonraun op - Anyone else who tries to undermine that will pay with their life  
> (I think I got them all?)
> 
> Anyway, so now we know a little more about Lexa's time on the ground but as Clarke and Lexa find their way back to each other again, Lexa will open up a little more and we'll learn more. This was like an intro to Clexa before anything really happens. I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you thought :)!

**Author's Note:**

> Ps. Sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes. :)


End file.
